SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 
OR REGENERATION 



R.C.DOUGLASS 



s^™^* 




Class _ 
Book-. 

(ipightN?. ........ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



OR 



REGENERATION 



"■ SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



OR 



REGENERATION 

The Law and Process of the Unfoldment 
of the Christ in Consciousness 

BY 

R. C. DOUGLASS 



Profounder, profounder 

Man's spirit must dive ; 
His aye-rolling orbit 

At no goal will arrive ; 
The heavens that now draw him 

With sweetness untold, 
Once found, — for new heavens 

He spurneth the old. 

Emerson 

Correct the portrait by the living face, 
Man's God by God's God. 

Browning 



BOSTON 

LEE AND SHEPARD 

1903 



the library 
congress 



OF 

Two Copies Received 

MAR 6 1903 

Copvrignt Entry 

CLASS (\_ XXc. No 

COPY B. 



J)(o'7>3 



Copyright, 1903, by R. C. Douglass. 



Published, February, 1903. 



All rights reserved. 



Spiritual Evolution or Regeneration. 



BOSTON 



PREFACE 

THESE Private Lessons in Practical Christian 
Metaphysics are offered to the public in response 
to many requests from our students, some of whom 
came into the Spiritual Consciousness through 
them. They are offered in the same spirit of 
assurance in which they have always been given 
in class work. 

Their didactic form comes from this first use 
of them as the necessity of class teaching. And 
we have allowed this form to remain, because we 
conceive it quite possible, that this may prove the 
more effective way to impart the basic principles 
of Truth to any reader, who will consider himself 
a student while reading them. We have made 
certain portions of the Bible the basis of our 
reasoning; because those portions contain the 
essential and fundamental principles of the phil- 
osophy of the eternal order of all Evolution, 
whether Cosmical or Spiritual. This has involved 
an incidental Spiritual interpretation ; showing the 

5 



PREFACE 

Scriptures to have be^n written solely for the 
purpose of teaching Truth ; that there is a scien- 
tific law running through them as accurate as the 
law of the more physical sciences ; and that 
the highest philosophy is couched under all its 
histories, prophecies, and figures. 

If we have made clear something of the pro- 
found Spiritual philosophy of Christianity, suffi- 
ciently to lead some struggling souls — who 
perhaps had stumbled at the " letter of the Word," 
or at certain dogmatic teachings concerning it — 
into the Light, and into a deeper and broader 
Christian experience — into the realization of the 
Christ in Consciousness — until they have made 
the demonstration, that Righteousness in Con- 
sciousness is Health of both Soul and Body, — 
then we shall be satisfied that we have not labored 
in vain. 

For some of the conceptions of the Genesis 
Allegory we are indebted to our first teacher 
in Christian Metaphysics, Rev. G. D. Robinson, 
who clearly saw the symbolic aspect of the 
Creation story, and showed us the perfection of 
the correspondence; and worked it out in a 
similar way. 

6 



PREFACE 

We send this message forth on its mission, with 
more than a wish — with the prayer of faith, that 
some Spiritual Seed-thought may find a receptive 
matrix in the heart of each reader, where it shall 
do its regenerative work, and bring forth fruit in a 
Regenerated Life. 

R. C. Douglass. 

Boston, Mass., February, 1903. 



CONTENTS 

PART I. 

Chapter Page 

Introduction to the Genesis Symbology. i 3 

I. The Awakening . 21 

II. Denial — Discrimination ...... 47 

III. Affirmation — Concentration .... 72 

IV. The "Two Great Lights" 97 

V. Thought and Expression 119 

VI. The Man that God Made 144 

PART II. 

Introduction to the Christ Symbology. 171 
VII. The Immaculate Conception and New 

Birth 179 

VIII. Unfoldment in Wisdom unto Manhood . 206 

IX., Overcoming — "The Wilderness" . . 230 

X. The Demonstrations of the Adept . . 250 

XL "Gethsemane" — Self- Renunciation . . 275 

XII. "The Crucifixion"- — Elimination of the 

Self 298 

XIII. " Resurrection " — " The Sabbath " — 

The Christ-Consciousness . . . . 321 

Conclusion 344 

9 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



REGENERATION 



PART I 

FOLLOWING THE "SIX DAYS" OF THE 
GENESIS SYMBOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION 



PART I 

THE GENESIS SYMBOLOGY 

The object of these pages is not Theological 
controversy, nor the exploiting of the " higher 
criticism," since the author lays no claim to theo- 
logical training. Nevertheless, all study of Truth 
in the nature of the case involves controversy, and 
touches elbows with Theology. In the nature of 
man's being, as a Spiritual Son of a Spiritual 
Father, any man may be taught of God, inde- 
pendent of the schools, who will discipline him- 
self properly in meditation. Because by thus 
" entering into his closet," he may come en 
rapport with Omniscience, and be instructed like 
the prophets of old. 

The one thing all the world is seeking is Truth. 
This is the " Pearl of Great Price," which we are 

13 



INTRODUCTION 

exhorted to "seek" — tc "search for as for hid 
treasures ; " and which when found satisfies the 
hunger of the soul. Truth is eternal, unchange- 
able, Spiritual Principle, ■ — like the " seamless 
robe," symmetrical and unrendable, rather than a 
debatable, uncertain, intellectual conception. Lu- 
cretia Mott said : "Truth for authority, not author- 
ity for Truth." Because Truth is eternal Principle, 
the great Teacher of Truth said : " I Am Truth." 
By identifying himself with the Christ, the Princi- 
ple of Truth, He " spake as one having authority." 
Truth, therefore, is Divine and of priceless value. 
Pilate's query is the question of the ages, never 
solved, as long as men search only through intel- 
lect, objectively. As our life is first developed 
along lines of objectivity, we naturally first seek 
for Truth intellectually, as though it were an 
objective something, which the mind can handle 
and analyze. It is because of this established 
habit of objective living and thinking that we con- 
tinue this blind search in the darkness. 

But Spiritual Truth is not found that way; 
because primarily it is not a thing of Intellect. 
For since all Truth is Spiritual, it can only be 
" Spiritually discerned." Then after having once 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

conceived the Spiritual Idea, we may proceed to 
clothe it in intellectual formula ; that by means 
of the symbolism of words we may convey to 
another our conception. 

This is the way all the Prophets wrote, the way 
all Truth is found. The reason the "Word of the 
Lord" spoken by Prophets had so great power is 
because they received it direct from the great 
Fountain of Infinite Wisdom ; which enabled 
them to speak from the standpoint of Truth, — 
with authority. 

Christ is called " The Word " - — the Logos, pro- 
ceeding from the Father. This was the concep- 
tion of the Greeks five hundred years before 
Christ. This was the conception of St. John and 
Philo, and according to the Kabbalists, who were 
profound metaphysicians, this was the conception 
of the Hebrews. For Josephus in his treatise on 
" Hades " addressed to the Greeks, said : " What 
you Greeks call Logos, we Jews call Christ." The 
Hebrew, Chokmah (Wisdom), is their term for 
this Wisdom-Word or principle, which is the 
second Sephira, and which, like the Logos , pro- 
ceeds from the Father (Ketker, the first Sephira). 
Thus Chokmah is the Son ; and yet he is called 

.15 



INTRODUCTION 

" the active and evident Father ; " to whom the 
Mother is united — Binah (the Understanding), 
the third Sephira. From the union of the mascu- 
line Chokmah and the feminine Binah proceed all 
Creations. This is why Christ is called " The 
Everlasting Father " in Is. 9 : 6. The other 
names ascribed to Chokmah are Yah, Yahveh 
(I Am). 

It is evident that all these terms refer to a 
great Spiritual Principle within us, establishing 
the fact that Christ is the great Principle of 
Divinity in Man. And so the Father is forever 
honoring and working through the Son. For the 
Son is the Eternal Word {Logos), by which the 
worlds were made; "and without the Word was 
not anything made that was made." 

Thus Christ is the Impersonal Word — the In- 
finite Word — the Logos — the Truth — the Divine 
Idea proceeding from Infinite Mind ; which goes 
forth clothed with authority and power to express 
itself, on all planes of expression. 

This Son of God in every man is the " Essential 
Christ" — the universal Savior. The personal 
Jesus ever recognized and identified himself with 
this Essential Christ, and constantly lived and 

16 



INTRODUCTION 

spoke from this Central principle ; until he 
earned the distinguished compound name, " Jesus- 
Christ; " which represents Humanity Regenerated 
— Humanity and Divinity united, making the 
Divine-Human. 

Thus Christ is "The Word of God; " which is 
"The sword of the Spirit," — "sharper than any 
two-edged sword," — " dividing asunder Soul and 
Spirit." Let us see what is the force of these 
terms. 

As God is a Trinity, — Father, Mother, Son — 
so Man is a trinity, — Spirit, Soul, and Body. In 
both cases the three are one. Of the Human 
trinity the " Spirit " is the Divine part of man ; the 
" Soul " is the Human Consciousness, needing 
salvation by instruction in Wisdom ; and the 
" Body " is the outward expression of the Soul, 
which is as far from perfection as is the Soul, — 
and the Salvation of which is wrought through 
the Soul's redemption. 

With this analysis of man's nature we may 
understand how the " Sword of the Spirit " can 
" divide asunder Soul and Spirit." 

Man has lived so fully in the mere animal con- 
sciousness that he cannot distinguish between 

17 



INTRODUCTION 

" soul" and " spirit." But the revelation of man's 
Spiritual nature is made by the Spirit only — by 
the " piercing even to the dividing asunder " — 
showing the distinction between the sin-stained 
" Soul" and the incorruptible "Spirit," between 
the Human and the Divine elements of his 
nature, in other words. 

Man cannot possibly aspire to a higher unfold- 
ment, until the Logos-Sword has " divided asunder 
Soul and Spirit," enabling him to distinguish be- 
tween the True and the False, that he may identify 
himself with the Christ-Spirit, — Divinity within, 
and thus unfold his highest potentialities. Every- 
thing depends on a wise choice. With this revel- 
ation of the Spirit, he may intelligently " choose 
that better part," and identify himself with the 
Divine part of his nature, and thus ultimately be- 
come Divine in Consciousness. 

Truth is something for the individual, and is dis- 
coverable by prayerful meditation. Another may 
direct your feet in the way of its discovery ; but 
you must by desire and receptivity find it for 
yourself. Books and teachers are aids ; but only 
aids. They are as often hindrances ; because they 
are on the external plane — objective. There is a 

18 



INTRODUCTION 

Wisdom higher than the wisdom of the world — 
a Wisdom not contained in books, nor taught by 
man, to be found only within. 

Some twenty-five years ago Joseph Cook said : 
"The Heathen, who have never heard of the 
Historical Christ, may know the Essential Christ, 
and so find Salvation." We have called such great 
philosophers as Socrates and Plato " heathen," 
because they did not know the " Historical Christ ; " 
for which they were not responsible. But who 
shall say they did not know the "Essential 
Christ " ? Certainly they were devout searchers 
for Truth. And Christ is Truth. A larger 
charity and truer Christianity will recognize the 
Christian in every genuine lover of Truth for its 
own sake, though he may not know the " Histori- 
cal Christ, " nor accept the conventional formulae of 
what is called theology. The broader Christianity 
will recognize the Christ in the exact philosophic 
statement of Truth. 

Plato did not live in vain ; nor was he here by 
accident. He left for the world a rich legacy of 
Truth in intellectual form ; which the broader and 
fuller Christianity must in the coming time utilize 
in a broader and fuller Theology. 

19 



INTRODUCTION 

The time is come when Religion must be scien- 
tific, and Science must be religious. The time 
has come when Theology must be philosophic, 
and Philosophy must be theologic. For whatever 
is true belongs to Christ; because Christ is Truth. 

In this work we have endeavored to search out 
the Spiritual meaning of that ancient mystic 
Story of Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis ; 
which, while seeming to be statements of fact, in 
the objective world, is in the real intent and pur- 
pose of the allegory a sort of compendium of the 
high esoteric teaching and metaphysical philoso- 
phy known to the ancients, — in the hope of being 
able to show thereby the deeper and more vital 
principles of the " Essential Christ " in the indi- 
vidual Consciousness. We have emphasized the 
Spiritual Idea, because we conceive this to be the 
essential thing of the Scriptures, to which its 
histories are subservient, and for which its alle- 
gories are given. 



20 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



THE " FIRST DAY : —THE AWAKENING 

"And God said, 'Let there be Light': and there was 
Light." — Gen. 1:3. 

" Man is Man's ABC. There is none that can 
Read God aright, until he first spell MAN." — Quarles. 

POPE said : " The proper study of mankind is 
Man." 

If this be our " proper study," it is of highest 
importance to the correct understanding of Man 
that our viewpoint be correct, in order that we 
may see him truly — as he is, in truth. If our 
viewpoint be human and earthly, we shall see 
him human and "of the earth earthy," manifest- 
ing all the baser qualities of humanity. But if 
our point of view can be changed from the earthly 
conception to the heavenly, - — then with divinely 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

perfect vision we shall see, as it were, through the 
eyes of Divinity, beholding him as God sees him, 
His own perfect Son, " made in His Image, after 
His Likeness." This is the True Man, truly seen. 
Therefore in the highest sense being God-derived, 
and not earth-born, he is not, in truth y what he 
appears to be from the earth viewpoint. Heaven- 
born, he is naturally a worshipping being. This 
has been his record in all history; which is at 
least suggestive of his high origin. But by reason 
of the dark obscurity of his earthly history it is 
not surprising that in all the historical ages gross 
superstitions have characterized all forms of relig- 
ion. Even at the present day superstition is a 
large element in religion. No form or system is 
entirely free from it. So much of the effete past 
clings to us. There is nothing so persistent as 
superstition. Naturally we see not our own super- 
stitions; but we want others to lay aside theirs 
and conform to ours. Therefore, from our point 
of view, they are "heathen." From their point 
of view we are heathen. We think them supersti- 
tious. Are we entirely free from it? These things 
are our inheritance from the rude ages and ruder 
races of the long, dark past. 

22 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

We are now in the Twentieth Century, which is 
to evolve a purer, though not less Christian, 
system of religious thought, free from the swad- 
dling clothes of superstition, — a system that shall 
be in keeping with the higher intelligence of this 
progressive age. The superior intelligence of the 
present day demands that we bring our religious 
ideas into the Areopagus of sound reason, and 
prove our theorems by the keenest tests of reason 
and philosophy. Applying the test of philosophy 
and reason Swedenborg called religion " an exact 
science." So great is the demand and tendency 
of the times in this direction that we have in 
" Christian Science," " Divine Science," " Mental 
Science," etc., so many efforts to prove the princi- 
ples underlying the teachings of Jesus to be true 
because scientific, and scientific because demon- 
strable. 

In this treatise on the practical Metaphysics of 
the Scriptures we shall endeavor to reason logi- 
cally, philosophically, and scientifically concerning 
God, Man, and the Universe, to show that Chris- 
tianity is both scientific and demonstrable, and 
therefore worthy the consideration of the brightest 
minds. 

23 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

All true sciences are demonstrable. Theology, 
the greatest of sciences, ought to be as demon- 
strable as chemistry or geometry ; and will be 
when the scientific thought is given full play, 
when its doctrines are deductions drawn from un- 
assailable premises of Absolute Truth. But if the 
superstitious element, which tradition has handed 
down, is a large factor in its formulated state- 
ments, it will not only fail of demonstration, but 
its doctrinal statements will degenerate into dogma, 
instead of being scientific theorems. 

Well do thinking men question a theology that 
offers no higher authority for its statements than 
bald dogmatic assertion. Men of reason require 
demonstration, justly repudiating the undemon- 
strable as a false claimant. No wonder thinking 
men have fled from dogmatism to agnosticisms. 

The old, so-called, science of Astronomy, which 
rested on sense evidence alone, assuming the 
earth to be flat, with all the sidereal host revolving 
around it, could not be demonstrated, on account 
of its false premises. Therefore it had to yield to 
a better system, founded on eternal principles of 
truth, a system which could be demonstrated, 
before it could justly be called a science. 

24 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

Just so the old medieval system of dogmatic 
theology, founded on the letter of external evi- 
dences and traditional superstitions, must in this 
day of scientific thought yield to a better the- 
ology, resting on a scientific and demonstrable 
basis. 

Why should not Spiritual as well as material 
things be scientific? Indeed, since the Spiritual 
underlies the material, the Spiritual sciences 
should claim our attention first, as fundamental to 
the material. 

For there is always an exact correspondence 
between the material and the Spiritual. Where- 
fore, if one factor in the correspondence be scien- 
tific, the other must be. 

The great teacher of Galilee was a profound 
philosopher. Wherefore, all his statements rested 
on a scientific basis ; without which they could 
not have stood the test of the ages. A system of 
ethics without a scientific basis would be quite 
unthinkable to the scientific mind. Every great 
system has had its philosophy ; and the more pro- 
found that philosophy, the more enduring its 
power. 

Perhaps the greatest reason that Christianity is so 
25 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

enduring and appeals so strongly to the human 
heart is its profound Spiritual philosophy. But 
dogmatism, which ignores philosophy, has shorn 
it of this greatest element of power. 

If a philosophic and scientific Christianity, in- 
stead of dogmatic Church-ianity, can be taught 
the people, we shall have a religious system most 
enduring, because founded on the strongest ele- 
ments of human nature, the religious and the 
scientific combined. 

The materialistic thought of Western civiliza- 
tion has materialized and occidentalizcd Christi- 
anity, so that it has lost the beautiful Spiritual 
philosophy, originally its basis, which it inherited 
from the most ancient civilization of which we 
have any accurate knowledge, that of its ancestors, 
the Aryans, whose schools of Spiritual philosophy 
have with wonderful persistency continued all the 
way down to the Christian era, appearing in modi- 
fied form in Egypt, Chaldea, and Greece, and in 
the schools of the prophets among the Hebrews. 

Rabold points out a long line of these Divinity 
Schools, where devout students assembled to study 
the philosophy of God and man thousands of years 
before our era. The first thing required of these 

26 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

students was to lay aside all prejudices, that, un- 
trammelled by preconceived opinions, they might 
be open and receptive to Truth. 

The starting point of their reasoning was the 
postulation of God as " First Cause." Thus they 
reasoned from Cause to Effect, recognizing Mind 
as the great Creative Causation. In this way they 
learned to develop the creative power of their 
own minds, and became Mystics or miracle-work- 
ers ; and their success in thus handling the higher 
Spiritual forces successfully depended on their 
living clean, Spiritual lives, above the plane of the 
ordinary human. The feats of magic performed 
to-day by the Brahman mystics and self-denying 
Gnanis are so wonderful that their narration 
would scarcely be believed. Yet they seem well 
authenticated. By the development of the higher 
Spiritual powers the genuine mystic was able to 
overcome the lower natural laws, as the overcom- 
ing of gravitation by levitation, enabling him to 
walk on the water, etc- In course of time others 
outside the Secret Brotherhood began to imitate ; 
and thus the fakir and the charlatan appeared, 
causing the genuine to be discredited. 

The Hebrew Prophets were students of the 
27 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

" Ancient Mysteries," and therefore understood 
the secret of Spiritual power. 

Elijah was a true mystic, and so well understood 
the creative power of thought that he was able 
to sustain himself and the poor widow of Zare- 
phath a whole year on " a handful of meal and a 
cruse of oil." 

Doubtless all the Prophets were mystics, who 
learned and taught this " Secret Wisdom " in the 
" Schools of the Prophets." 

Jesus of Nazareth was a prince among mystics ; 
and by using the Spiritual powers inherent in 
himself he was able to overcome physical laws by 
understanding and employing the higher Spiritual 
laws. 

By the creative power of thought he was able 
to multiply the " five loaves and two small fishes " 
sufficiently to feed " five thousand men, beside 
women and children," if this story is to be taken 
literally. There is no miracle wrought without 
law ; and he who knows the law, and lives up to 
its requirements, may do the works. 

What is to-day called " mysticism," " occultism," 
etc., is a modified relic of a very ancient and pure 
Spiritual religious teaching — a religious system 

28 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

of prehistoric origin found in its purest form 
among the Himalayan Hindus, and which is the 
parent of all succeeding systems, including the 
Hebrew system. For we read that "Abraham 
came out from Ur of the Chaldees," where this 
mystic religion was still taught; and he stamped 
the spirit of the " secret mysteries " upon the 
succeeding Jewish system. Next came Moses, 
" learned in all the wisdom of Egypt ; " and the 
"wisdom of Egypt" was the "ancient mysteries" 
or " Wisdom Religion " of their ancient Aryan 
ancestors, modified or intellectualized by the pecul- 
iarity of Egyptian thought. He was, then, a real 
mystic ; and the principle of his ethical system 
was oriental mysticism, full of symbols and sym- 
bolic rites, to portray to the mind certain Spiritual 
experiences of the heart. 

Freemasonry is now believed to have had a 
much greater antiquity and nobler origin than its 
devotees even dared to suspect; being a relic of 
this ancient system, which its allegories veil and 
its symbols conceal, — retaining but the hollow 
shell of ceremony as earmarks to indicate its high 
origin and great antiquity. This is clearly shown 



29 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

by J. D. Buck in his wonderful work, " Mystic 
Masonry." 

Those familiar with the Kabbala of the ancient 
Hebrews see that all the Prophets were the high- 
est order of mystics, that they had in the " Schools 
of the Prophets " the secrets of the highest Wis- 
dom of antiquity. 

Thus all the earliest schools were religious 
schools, in which the " Heavenly Mysteries," the 
highest wisdom, was taught. Then the mystic was 
the wise man, the Prophet of the Lord. Now, as 
then, the Spiritual is mystical, occult (hidden), to 
unregenerate intellect. In the nature of the case 
the Spiritual is hidden from men not on the 
Spiritual plane. 

Since Jesus was a prince among mystics, in 
order to understand the secret wisdom of his high 
teaching it will be necessary to be, as it were, " in- 
itiated into the mysteries " of the kingdom of 
Heaven; understanding which, the things long 
hidden become revealed. 

The practical purpose of this course of lessons 
in Christian Metaphysics is the training of the 
mind in Spiritual thought ; so that we may be- 
come " Initiates " into these mysteries. " To you 

30 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 
of heaven," said Jesus. 

The whole Bible is a book of " Concealed Mys- 
teries," written by mystics in the language of 
mystics, — in symbol, metaphor, allegory, and 
allegoric history. Therefore he who would dis- 
cover its hidden arcana must possess the key to its 
Spiritual interpretation. For Spiritual Truth is 
inexpressible, except in a symbolic way. 

Of course we understand the story of Creation 
as given in Genesis is one of the most ancient of 
allegories, and not original with Moses. 

That wonderful allegory has a vastly broader 
meaning than the materialist conceives. It opens 
with the fundamental assumption : 

" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 

In searching for the hidden or Spiritual mean- 
ing of the Scriptures the first thing necessary to 
do is to eliminate Time and Space from our 
thought ; that the Spiritual sense may be realized 
as Now and Here. Time and Space are things of 
the world of sense. God and all things Spiritual 
must be considered apart from Time and Space. 



3i 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Eternity is the unfathomable r.nd immeasurable 
Now. 

" Now is the accepted time, and behold ! Now is the day 
of Salvation." 

The fuller expression of this Genesis statement 
may therefore be : 

In the Eternal NOW God is forever Creating. 

The real vital and living value of the WORD is in 
its Now-ness and Here-ness, — within — without 
Where or When. The Spiritual or essential prin- 
ciple is never in the historical. 

" It is nigh thee, and in thy heart and in thy mouth, the 
Word of Truth." 

This Genesis story is an allegorical portrayal of 
the Cosmic order, primarily designed to show the 
process for the unfoldment of the Spiritual Con- 
sciousness in the individual. In other words, it is 
the story of Regeneration, — the great theme of 
all Scriptures. 

But considering it as a statement in logical 
reasoning, this was Moses' first or basic proposi- 
tion, his " Datum " of reasoning, — his first postu- 
late, — his beginning — not God's ; for God never. 

32 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

began, either to be or to create. There could no 
more be a beginning of Creation than of God. 
But considering it as referring both to the cosmi- 
cal and Spiritual processes, which follow the same 
law, it is not a declaration of what God once did a 
few thousand years ago, and only once. It is 
rather what he is forever doing, world without end. 
For what was once true of God is forever true. 

"lam the Lord : I change not." 

And so this shall be our Datum, our " begin- 
ning," our first proposition or assumption in de- 
ductive reasoning concerning God, the Universe 
and Man. We first assume or postulate God. 
Afterward we will endeavor to prove God. 

We start, then, with God postulated as the 
Absolute or underived First CAUSE ; and from 
this axiomatic datum we are to make our deduc- 
tions of Truth. If our premises are true, the con- 
clusion must be true ; and we shall be always within 
the sphere of Truth. 

There was never a time when Infinite Mind was 
not; when it was less than infinite ; when it began 
to think or express itself. 

That is, — since Thought is creative, there was 
33 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

never a time when God began to create. For 
without Thought Mind would not be Mind. Thus 
Creation is a necessity of Mind, and must have 
always been. 

A beginning of Creation is as unthinkable as a 
beginning of God. 

In this discussion it is not our purpose to follow 
the Cosmical process in the material world ; but 
rather to follow the same process in the Spiritual 
world. For the Spiritual world within is the exact 
correspondent of the world without. The unfold- 
ment of the Spiritual Consciousness is cosmical 
and not arbitrary, orderly and not fortuitous, 
exactly as with the world without. 

We have a world within, a Spiritual world to be 
created or unfolded. In the process of Regenera- 
tion the individual starts with his " world without 
form and void." Everything is at first chaotic to 
the mind, as it begins to think : there is " dark- 
ness upon the face of the deep," — the darkness 
of ignorance, — until dispelled by the Light of 
Truth through sound reasoning. This orderly 
process continues through alternate " evenings " 
and " mornings," until the unfolding soul finds its 
fruition in the " Sabbath," the nightless Day of 

34 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

Spiritual Realization ; which is the Kingdom of 
Heaven come — Salvation realized — Regenera- 
tion accomplished. 

There can be no Spiritual unfoldment without 
the Divine Spirit. There can be no Spiritual Con- 
ception without the " Brooding Spirit." 

" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of 
the Highest overshadow thee," 

before thy heart can conceive the Spiritual Christ, 
that the Christ may be born in thee, — before 
there can be any unfoldment of Divinity in Con- 
sciousness. There is no Spiritual Light amid the 
native darkness of " mortal mind," until " the 
Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters " 
of the mind. 

" Let there be Light," is the inevitable result, 

— the Christ is conceived, — and Christ is Light, 

— "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world." After the New Conception there 
follows the New Birth. 

This is The Awakening, — the dawn of a 
brighter hope, — the beginning of a New Life, — 
the First Step in Regeneration, — the " First Day" 
of the New Creation. We must remember that 

35 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

what is true of the world without is true of the 
world within, by correspondence. 

The New Birth makes you an " Initiate " into 
the order of the " Brotherhood of the Sons of 
God." By the true " Immaculate Conception " 
the Christ is born to consciousness. You have 
entered the " Path " of Regeneration. Hence- 
forth all your steps and experiences must be in 
and under the illuminating Light of Christ, the 
Living Truth. 

In this " First Day" of our " Initiation" let us 
see what new revelations this New Light will 
reveal. For we are now in the " School of the 
Prophets," studying Divine Philosophy. 

In beginning our reasoning according to Divine 
Wisdom, the most fundamental statement we can 
make is our First Postulate, namely : GOB IS. 
Then, answering the natural inquiry, What is God, 
we affirm God is BEING. But how can we know 
what Being is? The only way is to begin with 
yourself, by first recognizing your own existence ; 
which is not difficult; because no one can deny 
his own existence. You cannot possibly think of 
yourself as non-existent. Through recognizing 
your existence you may recognize your Being, from 

36 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

which you exist. As you contemplate Being — 
your own Being — your thought will expand, until 
you begin to get a conception of Infinite Being, — 
BEING Eternal, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. In 
this conception of the Infinite we may understand 
that in the limitless abyss there is no place nor 
point in space where Being is not. 

A distinction must be made, however, between 
Being and Existence ; which is the distinction be- 
tween the Unmanifest and the Manifest. 

Ex-istence implies something back of itself, 
from which it ex-ists. Therefore it is not strictly 
proper to say that God exists. For this were to 
suppose something back of Him, from which he 
exists. God is Eternal Being Uncreate. Only 
that ex-ists, as the Manifest, which stands out 
from (ex, out from) the Unmanifest, — that which 
appeal's by reason of that which is. God is Esse 
(to be) — BEING. Man is Ex-istere (to stand out 
from) — Creation. • God, Eternal, Primordial BE- 
ING, IS. Man, whose Being is in God, ex-ists from 
God. 

Now, because Man's Being is God, he may in 
consciousness recognize God as the Being of his 
being. 

37 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

BEING or Esse is the original, underived Es- 
sence or Divine Substance. Existere is that which 
is derived from Esse, on which its existence de- 
pends. Existere cannot be without Esse. But 
Esse depends on nothing. It IS. Yet there is a 
sense in which Esse depends on Existere. For as 
Mind cannot be Mind without Thought, so God 
cannot be God without Man, who is the Thought 
of Infinite Mind. Mind implies Thought; Father 
implies Son ; God implies Man. Each is the 
other's necessity. Then while Esse is the neces- 
sity of Existere, Existere becomes the necessity of 
Esse. This is essentially Swedenborg's reasoning 
in his " Divine Love and Wisdom." 

Thus it appears that while God is Man's neces- 
sity, Man is God's necessity. Since this has been 
always true, it follows that Man has always existed. 
For what is once true of God has always been 
true. God was never alone in his universe. 
Father and Son are both eternal. 

Now, corroborative of our basic statement, 
" Being Is," there is in every man's consciousness 
the unimpeachable witness declaring, I Am. Here 
every man may find God for himself, and here 
only can he know him. For "I Am " is "Jeho- 

38 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

vali," the "Lord; 1 and the "Lord God" of the 
Hebrews. 

" I Am," then, is a statement of Being; and 
God is BEING. Therefore in the utterance of " I 
Am " you speak the Hebrew name — the greatest 
Name of God ; and in that utterance you may at 
once recognize your own Being and the Divine 
BEING, — and discover the inseparable unity of 
the two, and joyfully exclaim, " I and the Father 
are One." Your own Being and the Divine Being 
coalesce. The Microcosm and the Macrocosm 
blend. God is inseparable from Man. God in 
Man is " The Lord " — " Jehovah " — The Christ. 

We may never know what God is in himself, 
what Being is in its essence. Yet it is every man's 
duty and privilege to form the highest possible 
conception of him ; and by means of his largest 
possible definition be able to convey to others that 
high conception. In the nature of the case The 
Infinite is indefinable ; because definition is itself 
limitation. The Illimitable cannot be limited. 
The best the finite being can do is to express its 
highest conception by its largest definition. Yet 
God's Name is forever unutterable in intellectual 



39 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

terms. Any definition conveys but imperfectly 
the individual's conception. 

Definition of God : (My Conception.) 

f Being, ("Life, f Principle, 
GOD is<; Mind, J Truth, j Substance, 
[^ Spirit, ^ Love, [ Will, — 

— Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent ; — a 
Trinity of Trinities in Unity; the All-embracing 
INFINITE ONE; — The BEING of all beings, 
the LIFE of all lives, the SUBSTANCE of all 
substances; the Universal, Unchangeable GOOD; 

— the ALL-FA THER-MOTHER-SON. — For 
MAN is a SON of GOD, with all that this 
implies. 

Reading across the Trinities, we see that Life is 
the Principle of Being; Truth is the Substance 
of Mind ; and Love is the Will of the Spirit. 

The terms " Spirit," " Substance," " Principle," 
" Truth," in their last analysis, are one and the 
same thing; and therefore in their highest use 
have a kindred signification — all referring to the 
same Divine, Primordial Essence. 



40 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

Aristotle taught the Spiritual nature of Sub- 
stance. He said that " A Spiritual Substance is 
the cause of the Universe." Therefore we may 
with exact propriety say : Of the invisible Sub- 
stance of Spirit all visible things were made or 
brought into visible expression. We no longer 
think that an absent God created the Universe out 
of nothing, nor out of pre-existent Matter. But 
rather, that the One Imminent, Omnipresent In- 
telligence evolved the Kosmos out of his own 
Infinite Spiritual Substance. So that all things — 
even Matter itself — are God in manifest expres- 
sion. As Paul said : " The things that are seen 
were not made of things which do appear." That 
is, Visible things were evolved out of the Invisible. 

Modern physicists recognize a universal Sub- 
stance, which they call Ether, invisible, intangible, 
and so very energetic as to be practically omnipo- 
tent. This exceedingly subtle Substance is a fit- 
ting symbol of what we call God. Yet it is not 
God. It is still too material ; for Ether is regarded 
as Matter in its most attenuated form. 

The Brahman philosophers say that there are 
five ethers, one interior, as it were, to another, — 
each finer and more potent than that exterior to 

4 i 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

itself; and that the Inmost of all is pure Divine 
Spirit, the Original Essence, from which all the 
more exterior ethers are evolved, until Matter, the 
outermost expression, appears. And thus the In- 
visible becomes manifest in forms, — the Unmani- 
fest becomes Manifest, — God becomes revealed 
to himself, — which is the object of Creation. 

Hence the Divine One says : " I Am God ; be- 
side Me there is None Else " — naught else — He 
is All. 

We have thought that Matter is solid substance; 
but it is not the real Substance. Only this most 
interior Essence is the Real, Primal SUBSTANCE. 
Spirit is the only Substance, — the Substance of 
all substances. Strictly speaking, to admit another 
Substance called Matter were to deny God's One- 
ness and All-ness, — making him but One of Two, 
or less than Infinite — hence Finite. 

When we understand that matter is but a 
" mode of Spirit," then nothing but Spirit will 
remain in consciousness ; and we shall be getting 
away from the illusions of the phenomenal, and 
finding the Real in the Invisible. We are awaken- 
ing to the Spiritual Consciousness. 

The other factors of the Divine Name, " Mind," 
42 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

" Life," " Love," and " Will " will receive further 
discussion in a later chapter. 

The Command, " Thou shalt not make unto 
thyself a graven image " — to worship — must in- 
clude a mental image as well as a physical one. 

For we must not picture to ourselves a God in 
human form, with human limitations and frailties. 
Such a " graven image " of the mind is too narrow 
and restricting for soul growth. The more truly 
we can realize God as Spirit, the more nearly we 
can comprenend Infinity by such a conception of 
God, the more we are expanding in consciousness. 
We are elevated or debased according to our con- 
ception of God. Hence the sin of having a low 
conception of God. This is idolatry. 

David said of such heathen gods : " They that 
make them are like unto them." That is to say, 
men are according to their idea of God ; and their 
Gods are like themselves. Therefore a loving 
man has a God of Love. So the " beloved dis- 
ciple" John said: " God is Love; he that dwelleth 
in Love dwelleth in God and God in him." A 
revengeful man has a " God of vengeance," and 
an intolerant man has an intolerant God. And so 
John Calvin, revengeful and intolerant, ordered his 

43 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

theological opponent, Servetus, burned at the stake. 
We need have no surprise that John Calvin gave 
the world a corresponding theology. And thus 
the doctrine of eternal torments originated in the 
wicked heart of men — never in the heart of In- 
finite Love, whose " sun shines upon the evil and 
the good, and who sendeth his rain on the just 
and the unjust " alike. John's conception is higher 
than Calvin's. The highest is none too good for 
us ; since the highest conception carries us the 
highest, and contains the highest worship. " God 
is Good, and his Mercy endureth forever." 

We must not limit the Infinite in any way, not 
even to one sex. He is both masculine and femi- 
nine, that Man may be his perfect expression. 
When we read, " In the beginning Elohim created 
the heaven and the earth," we find a name for God 
which is both masculine and feminine. For the 
singular form, Eloh, is feminine, and the plural, 
Elohim, is masculine. Besides, the plural form 
is used significantly with a singular verb. And 
resultant from that biological duality there is the 
Son, completing the Trinity — Father, MOTHER, 
and Son. 

All creating on every plane is accomplished by 
44 



THE "FIRST DAY" 

the union of these biological principles ; which in 
the Divine nature are called the Will and the 
Understanding, or their equivalents, Love and 
Wisdom. 

From the Divine Being in the heaven of heavens 
all the way down through every manifestation of 
life to the microscopic cell, the biological principle 
obtains as the key to the continuity of life. It is 
God everywhere working. 

Material philosophers have been working from 
a wrong basis to find God. Starting with the false 
assumption that matter is real, they fail to find 
God, the essence of all Reality. Hence they con- 
clude that He is the " Unknowable." And every 
one who is tinctured with the material idea has a 
personal, semi-material, anthropomorphic God. 

Their premises being material, their conclusions 
must be materialistic to some degree. The induc- 
tive reasoner, starting with matter postulated as 
real, will never be able to find God, who is Spirit. 

But if we reverse this order of reasoning, adopt- 
ing the deductive method, we shall be able to 
account for all things visible and invisible in the 
universe. First we must ascend into the lofty 
mount of Spiritual thought; where like Moses we 

45 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

" meet God face to face," as it were, in contem- 
plating and communing with our Ideal. This 
Spiritual Ideal, which the Spirit reveals only " in 
the mount," is God, who cannot be found u by- 
searching," but only by the Spirit's revealing. 
Then, starting with our IDEAL, the command is : 
" See thou fashion all things after the pattern 
shown in the mount." For the " pattern " of our 
Spiritual Temple must be " shown in the mount " — 
" In the mount of God it shall be seen." It must 
be revealed from above, before we can begin our 
system of deductive reasoning. Then will all 
things have a Divine significance and value, which 
will be Spiritual to our consciousness. Then we 
shall know ourselves to be Spiritual beings, living 
in a Spiritual world, under a Spiritual God, who 
evolved all things out of his Spiritual Substance, 
because all things have a Spiritual basis and 
reality. 

If hitherto our ideals have been too low to 
afford us complete satisfaction, we must form 
higher ideals, dwelling long in their contemplation, 
until " Beholding as in a glass the Glory of the 
Lord, we are transformed into the same image 
from Glory to Glory." 

46 



II 



THE "SECOND DAY" : — DENIAL 
— DISCRIMINATION 

"And God said, ' Let there be a Firmament in the midst 
of the Waters, and let it divide the Waters from the Waters.' " 
— Gen. i:6. 

THE " Second Day" of this symbology is the 
Second Step in Regeneration or Spiritual Evolu- 
tion. It is said that every great unfoldment has 
its " six periods," and that the " seventh " is the 
perfected attainment. Then what is true of the 
Cosmical evolution must be true of Spiritual evo- 
lution. It is the same law operating on two 
planes. The process is Cosmical in both cases, 
dealing with matter in the one case and mind in 
the other. The Allegory always has a double 
meaning, because it deals with Law operating on 
two planes, showing the correspondential relation 
of the two. The one can no more be denied than 
the other. Both are equally true, according to 
Swedenborg's great Law of Correspondences. 

47 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

If this great Allegory refers primarily to the 
order of the evolution of the Kosmos, and second- 
arily to the evolution of the Spiritual Conscious- 
ness," then its " six days " must in either case be 
" periods " rather than "days." For we read: 
" One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day," Then, accord- 
ing to the symbology of numbers (1,000 being a 
cube of io, and " 10" denoting in symbolic lan- 
guage, fullness or All), the number 1,000 must 
stand for an unmeasured, indefinite period, suffi- 
cient to accomplish its end, as the formula io X 
io X io would indicate. 

It will be borne in mind, that while Time is a 
necessary factor in things of the natural world, it 
does not obtain on the Spiritual plane. 

So while " io " and its multiples symbolizes an 
unmeasured period, sufficient for the natural evo- 
lution, — on the Spiritual plane, where Time does 
not obtain, it stands for a full and completed ex- 
perience, sufficient for the Spiritual unfoldment, 
without regard to time. 

Unfoldment is the order of Life ; progression is 
the Law of the universe. Everything is tending 



48 



THE "SECOND TAY" 

toward perfection. All Creation is moving toward 
its Divine source. 

In this allegory it will be noted that it is always 
" the evening and the morning " that constitute 
the " day," never the converse; because that would 
be advancing downward. There is always an 
" evening " of darkness to be dispelled by the ad- 
vancing Light of " the morning," at every step of 
our progress, — the darkness of ignorance over- 
come by the Light of Truth. Every new day 
attained has its comparative darkness, the over- 
coming of which brings a greater light to the 
mind. And thus we are progressing toward our 
final " Seventh day " of Spiritual Illumination. 

We will not lose sight of our definition of God ; 
since all Spiritual reasonings depend on our con- 
ception of God. Yet The INFINITE cannot be 
limited or circumscribed by definition ; because it 
is the function of definition to define or make 
definite. 

If The Infinite could be defined, there would then 
be no Infinite. Definition makes definite or finite. 
All that definition accomplishes is the formulation 
of our conception of The Infinite; and every 
human conception is necessarily finite, 

49 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Definition of God — our Conception : 
(Being, (Life, (Principle, 
God is < Mind, / Truth, <J Substance, 
I Spirit, ( Love,( Will — , — 
Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent; a Trinity 
of Trinities in Unity ; the All-embracing, Infinite 
ONE; the Being of all beings, the Life of all lives, 
the Substance of all substances ; the Universal, 
Unchangeable GOOD ; — the All-Father-Mother- 
Son. For Man is a Son of God, with all that 
this implies. 

Being, then, Sons of God in our Real Being, we 
must be of the same Spiritual Substance and have 
the same attributes as our Divine Father. " Like 
Father, like Son," is a universal truism, — true on 
the animal plane — on all planes— because true 
on the Spiritual. 

Of Jesus Christ Paul said: " In him dwelleth all 
the fulness of the Godhead bodily; " — that is, in 
bodily expression. What is true of the repre- 
sentative man is potentially true of every man ; — 
only every man has not yet unfolded his poten- 
tialities. 

To unfold the potentialities of the Christ in Con- 
sciousness, and consequently in bodily expression, 

50 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

is the great object and end of Regeneration. As 
we have said, Whatever God, the Father, is, that 
Man, the Son, must be potentially ; and those qual- 
ities and attributes he is to unfold and bring into 
bodily expression. Great as this task may seem, 
and really is, it is the high privilege of man to un- 
fold all the potentialities of the Godhead. 

Therefore, since God is Life, Man must mani- 
fest life ; and this he does to the degree of his 
understanding of Life. Seeing it uncertain and 
perishable, his experiences are uncertain, and he 
perishes accordingly; seeing it harmonious, Om- 
nipotent, God-Principled, his experiences will be 
harmonious, life will be a joy, and he will be in the 
way of demonstrating his highest potentialities. 

Since God is Truth, his offspring should mani- 
fest Truth in true conditions ; and this he does to 
the degree of his understanding of what Truth is. 
Since God is Power, his offspring should manifest 
power, and does to the degree of his understand- 
ing of what power is, its source and nature. The 
secret of being able to realize Life, Truth, and 
Power consists in knowing God and man's relation 
to him. 

If man fully knew that he is a Son of God, and 
5i 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

what this means, he would awake and arise in his 
might, a victor over " the world, the flesh, and the 
devil." Immediately on that realization he would 
begin to manifest his Divine powers, and enter 
upon a great Spiritual evolution. 

We are taking our Second Step out of the dark- 
ness of the animal-human consciousness with its 
inherent race beliefs, in search of the Light of 
Truth, — truth, which, because of its unchanging 
right-ness, will heal us of the wounds which error 
has inflicted. And in this Second Degree of our 
" initiation " we must freely use the eraser of 
Denial. For if there have been errors in our past 
lifework, it is quite necessary now that we erase 
them, that we may be able to build our Spiritual 
Temple free from the rubbish of the old thought. 
Rejection of error, and denial of its reality and 
power, is essential to its elimination. To this end 
we must establish a " Firmament in the midst of 
the Waters, to divide the Waters from the Waters." 

The separation of " Waters from waters " in the 
metaphysical sense is discrimination between 
classes of thoughts — the true from the false, etc. 
For in this symbology the " Great Deep " is the 



52 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

whole human mind; and the "Waters" are the 
free flowing thoughts. 

In all Scripture interpretation all " waters " re- 
fer to things of the mind, either Spiritual or natu- 
ral, according to whether the waters mentioned 
are of Israel or outside of Israel. 

In order to make any attainment in any depart- 
ment in life it is necessary to have a high purpose 
and a firm resolve. Then in discriminating between 
" waters and waters " we must use great firmness 
and wisdom. We are to reject from the mind all 
that cannot be measured by the perfect plumb-line 
of Truth, all that does not accord with our State- 
ment of Being. We must in the true Christian 
life learn to " walk by the plumb." " I will set a 
plumb-line in the midst of my people, Israel." — 
Amos 7 : 8. If we are to make Spiritual progress, 
we must, when once we have discovered an error, 
cut it off at all hazards ; otherwise the error re- 
tained will trail our Spirituality in the dust, and 
defeat us. By vigorous denial and repudiation we 
erase our errors. Then we may proceed with the 
solution of our problem. The mind must be 
emptied of its errors and falsities before it can be 
receptive to Truth. Only falsities can be destroyed, 

53 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

however: Realities are eternal and indestructible. 
Falsities are worse than useless : we must be rid 
of them. But to us things are real or unreal 
according to our consciousness of them. 

By means of the imaging faculty of the mind 
falsities may be pictured as realities through our 
belief in them as such ; and we suffer accordingly. 
Therefore what our higher intelligence finds to be 
unreal it is a matter of sound wisdom to cast out 
and erase from the tablets of consciousness. 

Again, the mind is the " Garden of Eden; " and 
the task given to every man is " to dress and keep 
it." Our past experiences in the old conscious- 
ness (the animal-human) have filled it full of the 
weeds of error and falsity ; which must be rooted 
up before we can plant the fruitful seed of Truth. 
For " every plant which my Father hath not 
planted shall be rooted up," said the great meta- 
physical teacher. 

In our effort to evolve from the animal-human 

i 
to the Divine-human in consciousness, we shall 

find many erroneous beliefs which are common 

to that race consciousness, and which must, as far 

as possible, be eliminated from conscious thought; 

because in the higher consciousness, to which we 

54 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

are aspiring, only Truth will be of use to us. In 
our mind-garden we have full power and dominion, 
and may mold and shape conditions to suit our- 
selves. We need simply to draw on the Infinite 
Intelligence within in all Spiritual work. 

There is no Spiritual progress without the Light 
from above. And so " The Spirit of God moves 
upon the face of the waters " of mind, as the sine 
qua non of this evolution. 

Two Great Fundamental Errors are the source 
of all error and sin. 

The First Great Error we have to cope with is, 
That there is another Reality and Power besides 
the Good, called Evil. 

If, as we have declared, God is Good, and Good 
is All, then certainly there can be nothing but 
Good in the universe — in the sense of Reality. 
We do not deny, that in the human consciousness 
there are manifestations of evil on every hand. 
But those manifestations are due to the human be- 
lief in them as reality. Once get rid of the idea 
that it has reality, and it is immediately relegated 
to the misty realm of falsity ; — and what is falsity 
but a shadowy no-thing? This is the vaporous 
stuff that Lies are made of— No-thing claiming 

55 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

to be Some-thing. Evil, then, is " A liar and the 
father of lies," as He said who solved this prob- 
lem truly. 

A Lie never had reality; its nothingness is 
clearly seen the moment Truth is spoken, It be- 
comes invisible, and vanishes like a bubble, when 
once its emptiness is shown. There would be no 
Spiritual darkness, if Evil were eliminated from con- 
sciousness. The darkness of Egypt — " darkness 
that may be felt " — comes from the consciousness 
of Evil. " The Children of Israel have Light in 
their dwellings ; " because they are in the Spirit- 
ual Consciousness, where there is no evil. If, as 
we have said, God is the soul and substance of all 
Reality, he cannot be the soul and substance of a 
Lie, which has no soul or substance. To concede 
Substance and Reality to Evil, gives it standing 
and power — making it a God, with power over 
us commensurate with our concession. We can- 
not afford to have two Gods, one Good with power 
to bless, and the other Evil with power to curse 
us. As sure as we have we shall be in danger of 
getting our gods confused (since both are in 
mind) ; accusing our Good God of sending forth 
his wrath to curse his children. 

56 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

We must be consistent concerning our idea of 
God. God is GOOD; and GOOD only is Reality 
Omnipresent and Omnipotent. There is no place 
or power for evil, except by our concession and 
recognition. 

Evil is an illusion of the mortal consciousness, a 
sort of phantasm of this undeveloped earthly life. 
But there is a sense in which evil may be called 
undeveloped Good. For if bitter consequences 
follow our mistake, the consequence — the legiti- 
mate fruit of the error — comes to show us the 
mistake, that we may learn its lesson, and thereby 
be led in Wisdom's way. So if we learn the 
lesson of every experience, each experience will 
have served a good purpose, and will have been 
Good, and not Evil. 

By using all experiences wisely, while unfolding 
the higher Consciousness, and by discriminating 
between Truth and Falsity, Reality and Unreality, 
all the phantasmagoria of mortal sense will disap- 
pear, in the ushering in of a New Day, where these 
illusions do not obtain. Oh, that men might awake 
and arise to the realization that God reigns — even 
Now, — that " The earth is the Lord's and the full- 
ness thereof" ! 

57 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

When you have carried the denial and renunci- 
ation of evil so far that you lose the consciousness 
of it, you will not see it in your brother ; you will 
have no fear of it ; you will not see sin, nor desire 
to sin ; you will be consciously Holy. The only 
hindrance to conscious holiness now is the belief 
in evil. When you are in what we may call the 
Good-Consciousness, only Good will come into 
your life, since only Good is in Consciousness. 

The Second Great Error of the race is, That 
there are Two opposing Substances. Spirit and 
Matter. 

In our definition of God we have used the word 
" Substance," affirming that Spirit is the only 
Substance, and that Matter in its last analysis is 
Spirit; so that fundamentally Spirit is all, or God 
is All. 

The Reality of Matter does not consist in its 
phenomenal aspect but in the underlying Spiritual 
substratum or Substantial Essence, on which the 
phenomenal depends for its " appearance." The 
Visible is the projection outwardly of the Divine 
Invisible, which only is Real. When we say that 
matter is unreal or " there is no matter," we always 
have reference to the phenomenal aspect of matter, 

58 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

and not to its Invisible Substratum. For the In- 
visible is the Real. 

We shall now be understood, when we say, 
" There is no matter : All is Spirit." 

The intelligent use of these denials will aid us 
in the comprehension of our own True Being; en- 
abling us to see ourselves as Spiritual, instead of 
material ; that we are even now Spiritual Beings 
living Spiritual lives in a Spiritual world ; that 
Holiness is everywhere, because God is every- 
where, and because everything seen is the expres- 
sion of God. " There is None beside Me." 

It is the human, even the animal-human con- 
sciousness — the Divine-Human not being yet 
unfolded, — that sees all things crudely material 
and imperfect, — man a fallen creature, sinful and 
depraved, — God in human form, with human 
faults, loving and hating alternately like itself. In 
this crude, primitive state our world is " without 
form and void, with darkness upon the face of the 
deep." 

But out of this material consciousness we are to 
advance by the " Spirit of God moving upon the 
face of the waters " of thought, from which plant- 
ing of the Divine Seed-germ of Spiritual Life from 

59 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

the " Brooding Spirit," we shall awake and arise, 
unfolding the .Spiritual Consciousness day by day, 
until we shall ultimately attain to the Spiritual 
Consciousness, — the estate of the Divine-Human, 
which is the end of Regeneration. 

In order the better to unfold the Spiritual 
Consciousness we must get rid of the Material 
Consciousness ; and this can be done only by the 
denial of that which is the basis of it. If there is 
a Spiritual aspect of matter and of our bodies, we 
must dwell on this Spiritual aspect of things, in 
order to cultivate the Spiritual. For as long as 
we make emphatic the material idea we are hold- 
ing ourselves to the material and the material 
consciousness. 

Materiality and Evil regarded as real are two 
anchors by which we are bound to earth and earth 
conditions. By cutting these old cables we may 
gain release from material conditions, and find rest 
in the high altitudes of Spiritual understanding. 
When the basic errors, hindrances to conscious 
Spirituality and holiness, are removed, then will 
the " most great peace " ensue, wherein " every 
man shall sit under his own vine and fig-tree with 
none to molest or make afraid." 

60 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

Our old Jerusalem (possession in peace) must 
be so fully destroyed that " there shall not be left 
one stone upon another that shall not be thrown 
down," before we can come into our New Jerusa- 
lem — the Spiritual Consciousness. 

The old Jerusalem was crude, primitive, materi- 
alistic. It was our then " possession in peace," 
our secure abode. It was all right in its day. We 
had to come that way. But that does not signify 
that we are to always stay there and become crys- 
tallized in material thought, ossified and fossilized 
thereby. If the soul does not grow it must crys- 
tallize, so that the higher faculties cease to unfold. 
Alas, what a vast army of the sons of earth pre- 
fer to hug to their bosom the material idea, shut- 
ting themselves up in their cocoons of material 
thought until they return to dust again ! Such a 
soul, leaving its " clay tenement," still retains its 
material consciousness. Death does not change 
the consciousness. What experiences it will pass 
through, what possible re-births, what effort it will 
make or not make, who can tell? How long it 
will take it in its new situation (or whether it will 
desire to change) to evolve the Spiritual Con- 
sciousness, who can tell? Happy is he who, 

61 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

while in the full possession of his faculties, shall 
" choose that better part" and apply himself to 
the unfoldment of his Spiritual nature and become 
worthy of eternal joys ! 

If we would advance in unfoldment we have 
got work to do. It appeals to our own better 
judgment as a matter of Wisdom, that we leave 
old, unsatisfying conditions, and strive for things 
higher — " leaving the things that are behind (the 
material idea), we press forward to the mark for 
the prize of our high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus," — unto the full attainment of our Divinity, 
in Consciousness. 

From Divinity we came forth ; Divinity was first 
z/2-folded ; so that it becomes our problem to un- 
fold in consciousness the within potentiality of 
Divinity. Why should we hesitate a single mo- 
ment to enter the path that leads to Life — the 
conscious attainment of a Divine estate? 

In this Second Degree of our unfoldment of this 
Divine Estate we have established a "Firmament" 
of discriminating Reason to separate "waters from 
waters" — thoughts from thoughts. And in this 
firmamental separation we place among the 
" waters under the firmament " the crude mate- 

62 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

rialistic ideas and all thoughts of sin, bondage, and 
limitation ; and among the " waters above the 
firmament " the pure, elevating, Spiritual thoughts 
and beautiful ideals, which carry us away from the 
gloomy records of past distresses and material 
limitations into the very atmosphere of heaven. 

Discriminating Reason, enlightened by the 
" Spirit of God moving upon the face of the 
Waters" of the mind, has enabled us to renounce 
and separate from the mind the Two great Funda- 
mental Errors, which, if retained, will weigh us 
down so seriously as to ultimately cheat us out 
of the Spiritual Consciousness — the " Kingdom 
of Heaven." 

The First Great Error is Evil's Reality; 

The Second Great Error is Matter's Reality. 

From the standpoint of the Animal-Human 
these seem very real ; but from the standpoint of 
the Divine-Human they are unreal. 

These errors, which have been in our heavens, 
we now cast to the earth. " I beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven." 

With this "satan," "the accuser of my brethren, 
cast down," there will be no hindrance to our 
rapid advancement in Spiritual unfoldment. 

63 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

These two fundamental beliefs of a primitive 
consciousness will in our final triumph over the 
carnal nature be found to be the " Two Thieves" 
which must be crucified with that old conscious- 
ness. For these " thieves " or " robbers " of the 
mind would, if allowed to remain, steal away our 
Spiritual realization, and thus defeat us in our 
effort to reach the Resurrection-Consciousness. 

Only by the renunciation of the material idea 
can we realize that this is a Spiritual world instead 
of a material one; that all things are now Spir- 
itual, and always have been. Only by the renun- 
ciation of the " Good-and-Evil" idea can we realize 
that this is God's World, and not the Devil's ; that 
all things are even now " Very Good," as at first 
pronounced. When this change of Consciousness 
is attained, Health will be natural, Holiness will 
be natural, Spirituality will be natural, the God- 
Consciousness will be natural. 

This radical denial of things of the old con- 
sciousness, which are so real to it, this severe 
iconoclasm, may at first bring a sense of distress 
almost. But our old Jerusalem cannot be de- 
stroyed without a struggle; still for our Christ- 
unfoldment it has to go. 

6 4 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

Every old dispensation (consciousness), having 
served its day, must be overthrown, before the 
ushering in of a New Dispensation (or Conscious- 
ness), which involves struggle. There must be 
great tribulations " before that great and terrible 
day of the Lord come." For our old racial be- 
liefs are exceedingly tenacious ; they are a part 
of us; built into us, as a part of our conscious- 
ness, and can no more be eliminated without a 
struggle, than a limb can be hewn from the body 
without pain. Then we will not be disturbed by 
the radical work of this Degree, preparatory to the 
revealing of the Heavenly Man. 

To the conscious mind freed from its life-long 
and race-long errors there will come a wonderful 
revealing of Spiritual Realities, our awakened 
finer perceptions shall behold a New World of 
transcendent beauty. The old heavens shall pass 
away and a transformed world of heavenly mold 
will appear to our transformed thought. Regen- 
eration is the only reform. The very foundations 
of the old life must be torn up ; the old conscious- 
ness must be supplanted by a higher conscious- 
ness. For as long as the old remains, the crim- 
inal will be criminal still. Prisons will never 

65 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

reform him. But only let the grovelling sensualist 
come into this higher consciousness, — that he is 
a Spiritual Being with Spiritual faculties and 
powers, and he will hasten to renounce his false 
pleasures and turn from them with loathing; his 
false appetites will disappear, and the animal will 
no longer be in dominion. 

In like manner pain will disappear as soon as 
you give up the idea of Evil and Matter as real. 
This may be readily verified in simple acute pain 
like toothache. 

In my travels in the West I casually met in a 
store a stranger groaning with a severe tooth- 
ache, and the following dialogue ensued : 

Q. What's the matter with you? 

A. I've got the worst toothache I ever had. 

Q. Do you enjoy it? 

A. I should say not; I've had it two days. 

Said I : You must like it pretty well to keep it 
two days ; fifteen minutes is long enough for me 
to keep a toothache. 

Said he : What do you put into a tooth to stop 
toothache so quick? 

A. I put nothing into it. 

Q. What do you do for it? 
66 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

A. I order it off the premises. 

Said he : You couldn't order it off my premises. 

Said I : No, you like it too well ; you are fast 
friends, you hold right to it and are not going to 
let it go ; you believe in it as Reality, have kept 
it two days, and are still holding to it. 

Said he : Do you mean to say that I can get 
rid of toothache at will ? 

A. Certainly, when you know how. 

Q. Tell me how. 

A. That's different; I've studied this for 
years and have scarcely learned how; I can't 
tell you in a minute ; my train goes in twenty 
minutes. 

Said he : You interest me. If there is a way 
to be rid of toothache at will I'd like you to give 
me a pointer. 

I determined then to stop his toothache, and 
said : I will, if you will answer three questions 
correctly. To this he consented. 

Q. Is the physical body before me the Real 
Man? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Do you understand your Real Self to be 
a Spiritual Being? 

67 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do you believe for one moment that this 
Spiritual Being, your True Self, the Son of God, 
ever had or could have a toothache? 

A. No, sir (very firmly). 

Said I very deliberately and firmly : Then you 
have no toothache and you know it. 

I saw by his glance (which I held for ten sec- 
onds) that he fully saw my meaning, and that he 
got a view of the Spiritual Self; and in that con- 
ception the material idea was eliminated. 

Well, said he, I haven't any; it is gone, and 
all soreness is gone, too. 

Said I : Your one glimpse of the Spiritual Man 
has healed you, and this is the natural remedy for 
all human ills. 

It was not my thought which healed him; 
it was his own. He had practically denied 
matter and affirmed Spirit, as I " showed him 
how," which was all I promised to do, and all 
I did. 

This little incident shows the basis of all Spir- 
itual healing to be the abandonment of these two 
racial errors, and the realization of the Spiritual 
and the Good universal as the only Real. 

68 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

But a day is to dawn upon the world, as it may 
to any individual, when all these illusions shall 
cease, when " Satan shall be bound a thousand 
years, and shall deceive the Nations no more." 
This last clause shows that the " nations " are 
under an illusion — are " deceived." 

In the Spiritual interpretation the " nations" 
are within ; the whole world is within ; the illu- 
sion is within, and the binding of the illusionist 
is to be accomplished within. By whom? By 
yourself, the only demonstrator of Divine princi- 
ples. The individual is always the actor clothed 
with omnipotent powers, when he knows who 
he is. You are King in your kingdom, the 
ruler of your world, the destroyer of every 
satanic illusion that has deceived you, if only 
you will recognize your power and assert your 
authority. 

And it is through overcoming that you shall be 
able to come into the realization of your power 
and dominion. 

" He that overcometh shall inherit all things." 

" He that overcometh shall sit with Me in My 
throne, even as I overcame, and am set down 
with my Father in His throne." — - Rev. 3:21. 

69 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Hitherto we have lived in the consciousness of 
Good-and-Evil, both believed to be Real; and we 
have suffered accordingly. Shall we always re- 
main there, and be swallowed up in its vortex of 
woe? 

There is a way of escape, which we are endeav- 
oring to point out. Only by overcoming is power 
developed ; and " underneath are the Everlasting 
Arms." 

The whole power of evil comes from its long 
ascribed reality, through functioning in the sin- 
consciousness. But once destroy this giant Lie 
with the " five smooth stones " of Truth (the 
five Spiritual senses), and there will be nothing 
to fear, — no evil, no sin, no sickness, no 
death. The Giant Illusion, Evil, will be as 
impotent as the dead Goliath, which in figure 
he represents. 

See yourself a Divinely perfect Spiritual Being, 
a very Son of God, with Spiritual senses only, — 
be a Son of God ! — and you will wield the same 
Spiritual weapons that David did. You will be 
David, and will scatter the Philistian hosts within 
(evil thoughts), having slain their champion — 
Belief in Evil. 

70 



THE "SECOND DAY" 

With the elimination of Evil and Matter, as 
realities, from conscious thought, the long, dark 
night full of terrors will have passed, and a brighter 
Day will dawn. 

" The Evening and the Morning were the 
Second Day." 



71 



Ill 



THE "THIRD DAY " : — AFFIRMATION — CONCEN- 
TRATION 

" And God said, ' Let the Waters under the Heavens be 
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land ap- 
pear. 1 ' — Gen. 1:9. 

Among the ancient Brahmans Religion was the 
greatest and most profound of sciences ; and the 
student of the " Ancient Mysteries," as he entered 
upon the task of mastering them, was called an 
" Initiate." Before any " Initiate " could be passed 
to his " Second Degree," he must have thoroughly 
mastered the First, and have appropriated all its 
truths and principles. There was no superficial 
work, no skimming over by mere memorizing. 
All had to be understood, digested, appropriated, 
assimilated, and made a part of the individual con- 
sciousness, before the aspiring Neophyte was 
considered worthy of advancement to his Second 
Degree. Only in this way can Religion exert its 

72 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

proper function, — that of transforming the con- 
sciousness — unfolding the Divinest in man. Only 
by such a radical transformation is there any Re- 
generation. This these ancient Wise Men well 
understood. What was true of man then is always 
true of him. 

This order of Mystics was called " The Ancient 
Brotherhood." They were very exclusive in the 
nature of the case; because only in this way could 
the purity of the Order be maintained and the 
highest Spiritual evolution in consciousness be ac- 
complished. Their modern Oriental adherents 
claim that from this ancient Brotherhood there 
exists in the Spiritual world what they call " The 
White Brotherhood," who have this planet in 
charge, and are planning for its regeneration 
during this Century. 

If the two first Steps of our Initiation into the 
Brotherhood of the Sons of God have been well 
taken, and ail its truths appropriated, we are pre- 
pared to advance another step in the Way of Re- 
generation. It is not sufficient to accept the 
intellectual formula of Truth. It is quite a differ- 
ent thing to Spiritually apprehend Spiritual Truth, 
which we must assimilate and make our own. 

73 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Only by this thorough appropriation and assimila- 
tion is it of any real value to us. But when thus 
appropriated it will exert a wonderful transforming 
power over us. 

The " natural man " — in the Animal-Human- 
Consciousness — does not know Truth — ■ does not 
know Spiritual things at all. He functions only in 
the Intellectual and Sensuous Realms. His king- 
dom is of this world. His Spiritual perceptions have 
not yet been awakened. He has not yet been " born 
of the Spirit." In this consciousness at best we see 
but dimly, as it were through materialistic specta- 
cles. The material consciousness is so darkened that 
we scarcely see. Paul said : " Now we see through a 
glass darkly." Isaiah said : " This people's heart 
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing 
and their eyes have they closed, lest at any time 
they should see with their eyes and hear with their 
ears, and should be converted and I should heal 
them." Here the Prophet refers to the Spiritual 
senses. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." 
In the nature of the case it is not expected that we 
should open up fully developed Spiritual senses 
all at once. For our higher faculties must first 
be awakened before we can use them. As the 

74 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

child must learn to walk, so our first steps must be 
taken in meekness and childlike simplicity. In 
fact, we cannot know the secret mysteries of Spirit- 
ual things, only as fast as, and to the degree that 
we unfold our own Spirituality. For this high 
order of Wisdom comes not through intellect ; but 
" Spiritual things are Spiritually discerned;" and 
that just to the degree of our Spiritual unfoldment. 
The unfathomable depths of Infinite Wisdom un- 
fold to us with our unfoldment. Unless we Spirit- 
ually apprehend the Spiritual Truth, which the 
intellectual formula is given to express, we are not 
making progress in our evolution. Each step 
well taken will prepare the way for the next 
higher, until the great consummation, the illumi- 
nated Seventh, is realized. 

A statement of Truth may not at first be ac- 
cepted by the intellect ; it may even have a dis- 
turbing effect in the mind. But never mind, you 
have only to sow the seed ; you cannot make it 
grow. Clean-cut statements of Truth will some- 
how cling to the mind with a singular tenacity, 
even though not fully received by intellect; till in 
the fulness of time the fruiting will appear, — - 
" first the blade; then the ear; after that the full 

75 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

corn in the ear." Therefore, continue to " sow be- 
side all waters" (all mentalities) ; and the growth 
and fruit will often be seen where least expected. 
Have no fear for the success of your word of 
Truth ; don't worry about it ; the sowing is your 
part. You have not got to stand for the defence 
of Truth. It is its own defence; it will take care 
of itself; it only needs to be spoken ; its power is 
omnipotent. 

If only you have the spirit of meekness and 
obedience, Infinite Wisdom will give you its own 
" sure Word of prophecy." You will not be a 
" barren tree;" since the Infinite Fountain is 
within. Wisdom does not enter the mind from 
without. As Browning says: 

" Truth is within ourselves ; it takes no rise 
From outward things, whate'er we may believe. 
There is an inmost centre within us all, 
Where Truth abides in fulness ; 

and to know 

Rather consists in opening out a way, 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, 
Than in effecting entry for a light, 
Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly 
The demonstration of a truth, its birth ; 
And you trace back the influence to its spring 
76 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

And source within us, where broods a radiance vast, 
To be elicited ray by ray, as chance shall favor." 

When the waters of thought are " gathered to- 
gether " they form a compound of Character, which 
is the " Dry Land " that always " appears." The 
" waters under our Firmament " are the thoughts 
we make practical in life ; and these are what de- 
termine Character. 

In the Second Lesson we were shown the true 
and righteous discrimination we should make 
among our thoughts. In this lesson we are to 
note the results of proper and improper discrimi- 
nation in its effect on Character. For thoughts, 
when " gathered together," become "Dry Land" 
— fixed or established character. 

We establish a good or bad character accord- 
ing to whether we use our powers of discrimina- 
tion wisely or unwisely — according to the quality 
or character of thoughts we " gather together." 
For it is a universal law, that as we sow, so shall 
we reap ; that as we " gather," so shall we establish 
character. The " dry land " is sure to " appear." 

With a perverse Will we may choose to function 
in sensuality and carnality never so secretly, and 
fancy that, because we maintain the outward ap- 

77 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

pearance of uprightness and gentility, we are known 
as perfect gentlemen. But be not deceived. Char- 
acter cannot be concealed ; because it is what we 
are. " The dry land appears," whether we realize 
it or not. Character is the synthetic compound of 
our thoughts. What we think determines what we 
are. And though the waters of thought appear to 
pass silently beyond the recognition of others, still 
they become concreted in our consciousness and 
body, and leave the " mark of the beast in our 
foreheads." " We are known and read of all." 
" The dry land" is sure to " appear." "That 
which is whispered in the ear in closets shall be 
proclaimed upon the housetop." Character can- 
not be concealed. 

Discrimination was the theme of the last chapter. 
Affirmation of Truth will be the subject of this, 
that we may plant the fruitful seed of Truth in our 
well-prepared garden. 

Truth, as we have said, is omnipresent; yet it 
has little effect on us, until we handle it with the 
conscious mind, and accept and make it our own. 
It is always within, waiting our recognition, that we 
may be unfolded and uplifted by its quickening 
power. Through our acceptance and realization 

78 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

of it, it will externalize itself in true conditions of 
concrete bodily expression, affording health and 
happiness. 

But the effect of Truth on us will depend on our 
conception of it, on the clearness and vividness of 
our realization of it as an eternal principle, clothed 
with Divine power ; or whether we Spiritually ap- 
prehend it or only intellectually. But what is the 
distinction between the two conceptions? 

Jeremiah said : " A man's word is his only 
Burden." 

Jesus, who spoke from the Christ within, said : 
" My Words are Spirit, and they are Life." 

Here the two concepts, " man's word," and 
Christ's Word, are contrasted. The one is man's 
concept of Truth ; the other is the Christ Idea, or 
Truth itself. Man's word is opinion, — -a thing of 
Intellect; not the genuine article. For the human 
concept is, as we have said, a mis-conception; 
which brings its long train of " burdens," like any- 
thing counterfeit. But the Christ Conception, 
which is Truth Absolute, is never a matter of 
opinion or controversy. 

Man speaks his word from the human standpoint 
(really a false standpoint) ; Jesus speaks from the 

79 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Christ standpoint — Truth's own standpoint. Such 
Words are fraught with Power, since Truth is God. 

The power of the Spoken Word is enough to 
raise the dead ; when spoken with the realization 
of its Divine Omnipotence, — that Christ is the 
very Word of that word. Can there be " burdens " 
to such Words? On the contrary, " My yoke is 
easy, and My burden is light." 

To bear the yoke of Christ is to escape " bur- 
dens." To bear the yoke of Christ is to bear no 
yoke. He is called the great " Burden bearer." 
" My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." In 
the service of Truth there is freedom — not " bur- 
dens." The Sons of God are free. 

It is the human concept which brings burdens 
— the false concept of things. 

All the burdens of earth, all sorrows, discords, 
sufferings, and calamities are the natural result of 
our own misconceptions of Truth — our Words. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox says of the importance of 
the right use of words : 

' ' Words are great forces in the realm of life ; 
Be careful of their use. Who talks of Hate, 
Of Poverty, of Sickness, but sets rife 
Those very elements to mar his fate. 
80 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

"When Love, Health, Happiness and Plenty hear 
Their names repeated day by day, 
They wing their way like answering fairies near ; 
Then nestle down within our homes to stay. 

' « Who talks of Evil conjures into shape 
That formless thing, and gives it life and scope. 
This is the law. Then let no word escape, 
That does not breathe of everlasting hope." 

We are searching for the unalloyed TRUTH, — 
the Christ-WORD, — something above opinion, 
whose undeviating right-ness we may safely anchor 
to, and feel that we are firmly planted on the 
eternal Rock, against which the turbulent waves 
of human opinion may dash, and only be them- 
selves broken. 

We are tired of words, tired of burdens, tired of 
opinions, — though men call them Truth. We 
want the authority of Truth itself. Nothing short 
of this will satisfy our insatiable hunger and lift 
the burdens under which we groan. 

How does one's thought become a burden and 
affect his health ? 

Through the imaging faculty — the imagination 
— the mind has the power to make pictures. This 
is the only way the mind has of making a thought 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

continuous, so as to produce a result which will 
always be according to the character of the pic- 
tures made. 

For the mind is a delicately constructed camera 
in which all our thoughts are pictured, before they 
can be brought into expression. First the picture 
on the sensitive plate ; then the development or 
expression of it in outward conditions of body or 
environment. 

Said Ezekiel, " Son of man, hast thou seen what 
the Elders of Israel do in the dark, every one in 
his chambers of imagery?" 

The misuse of this imaging faculty is what the 
prophet is speaking of. By this faculty we make 
pictures in the " dark chambers " of the mind con- 
tinually; which in due time are expressed in con- 
ditions of body. This wonderful faculty was 
intended for our advancement in Spiritual unfold- 
ment by its proper use in picturing our highest 
ideals, in order that better and still better condi- 
tions should be realized in experience. By the 
use of this faculty we may debase or even destroy 
our bodies, or we may purify and rejuvenate them, 
according to the character of the pictures we 

make. 

82 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

The cause of the late Charles Dickens' death 
was a mental picture made several years before, 
which was repeated with depressing effect, every 
time the revolving year brought to his mind the 
memory of the railroad wreck with all its horrors. 
The recurring date gave occasion for calling up 
the terrible picture, each time with greater vivid- 
ness and depression, as the physical body became 
weaker, — that picture seeming real to his deli- 
cately sensitive nerves, so that his friends said he 
was wandering in mind, — until the frail body sank 
beneath the heavy " burden " which human thought 
had imposed, on a 9th of June, the anniversary of 
the railroad wreck. 

Affirmations of Truth fill the mind's gallery with 
beautiful pictures, awakening joy, harmony, and 
health. By the affirmation of Truth we present 
these pictures to the mind, and emblazon them on 
its walls. Our ideals are our greatest, most useful 
and helpful pictures. Our highest ideal is our 
conception of God ; which is always the most im- 
portant and potent of our image creations, and 
the one most essential to a sound mind and a 
healthy body. 

Our First Affirmation, then, must be the state- 
83 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ment of our conception of God, so far as it is pos- 
sible to formulate it — as the expression of our 
highest ideal. But the word-expression is not the 
real picture, the picture which expresses itself out- 
wardly in the body. The real picture is the Ideal 
in the mind's gallery, which never can be fully 
expressed in intellectual words. This is the pic- 
ture which means everything to the individual; 
which controls his life and affects his body. 

Could men but realize that all discord and dis- 
tress, all sin and suffering, failures and calamities, 
are directly due to a false conception of God, they 
would begin to search for the true God. But who 
can give us the perfect picture? No one; it is 
not in another's power to communicate his ideal. 
Your ideal is exclusively your own, and you can- 
not give it to another. The best you can do is to 
roughly sketch it in intellectual terms, and in that 
imperfect state present it to the mind of another. 
Yet this sketch of a high ideal is only an imitation 
of the real picture ; which cannot, therefore, im- 
press the mind of the second party with the same 
force as the original idea impressed the original 
thinker, who was its creator and exclusive owner. 
But the intellectual word-picture may aid another 

8 4 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

in forming his ideal, which is exclusively his own. 
This word-picture is the best you can give. For 
only Divinity can reveal Divinity in the true Ideal, 
and only to the Divine Self can the Divine reveal 
himself. Only by such original pictures may we 
know God, " whom to know aright, is Life 
eternal." 

Since eternal Life depends on knowing God 
aright — on having a true concept of God — 
then " let the waters " of thought " be gathered 
together in one place " — in concentration on this 
one ideal — and " let the dry land appear." Thus 
may we perfect our Ideal. 

When we had in our First Chapter formed our 
Ideal picture, we expressed that picture in our 
definition of God. This was our word-picture of 
our Ideal-picture, which we now offer to another : 

f Being, f Life, f Principle, 

God is <[ Mind, <J Truth, <j Substance, 

[ Spirit, [ Love, [ Will, — 
Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent; a Trinity 
of Trinities, in Unity ; the All-embracing, Infinite 
One; the Being of all beings, the Life of all lives, 
the Substance of all substances ; the Universal, 
Unchangeable Good ; the All-Father-Mother-Son. 

85 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

For Man is a Son of God, with all that this 
implies. 

This is our First Affirmation — our greatest 
picture. 

Our Second Affirmation will be : Whatever God 
is, that I am. 

For as I am His Child, I must be like Him — 
of the same Substance. 

Our Third Affirmation will be : Since I am a 
Son of God I am Holy, like Him, — not a sinner. 

Our Fourth Affirmation will be : God' s Will is 
my Will. This by reason of my Son-ship and 
likeness to Him. Realizing this, I cannot trans- 
gress his Will. 

These Four Affirmations resolve themselves into 
one great picture, which fill the whole mind with 
an illumination, when seen in all their perfection. 
This is using the imaging faculty for its highest 
use, which carries us to the realization of our 
highest. 

Let us examine these Affirmations separately. 

First : God is. 

Analyzing our definition of God, that the First 
Affirmation may the more clearly reveal him, we 
first note that every affirmation of Truth implies 

86 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

the denial of its logical Opposite or Contradictory. 
For we have seen that a contradictory of Truth is 
not a Reality. It is only its logical opposite— a 
mere figmental necessity of reason. For Reason is 
the process of Comparison. Hence Phrenology 
names that faculty " Comparison." Opposites are 
the necessity of reason. These Reason handles for 
the purpose of solving problems, determining the 
reality and rejecting the unreality ; for this is its 
problem. 

To determine Truth is the high function of 
Reason. And this necessarily implies the rejection 
of the false ; because the reasoner is in search of 
Truth only. Therefore when we consider " Good/' 
" Life," " Truth," " Substance," etc., reason pro- 
ceeds to contrast these with their figmental oppo- 
sites, for the purpose of finding the thing of worth. 
And having thereby determined the eternal, inde- 
structible realities, places them where all realities 
belong, in the realm of Divinity; — accepting 
Good, and rejecting Evil ; accepting Life, and re- 
jecting Death ; accepting Truth, and rejecting 
Falsity; accepting Substance, and rejecting Ap- 
pearance. 

Not only is the finding of Truth the function of 
87 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Reason, but the denial or rejection of its Contra- 
dictory is equally its function. Rejection of un- 
realities are the Corollaries of her Affirmations. 
For the Corollary is as inevitable as the Conclu- 
sion. 

The honest searcher for Truth will through 
reason find it; and finding, will accept it. The 
finding of Truth uncovers and exposes the falsity 
of error, which the honest searcher now rejects. 

Thus our reasoning exposes the false claims of 
evil, death, etc., and relegates them to the dark- 
some realm of unreality, nothingness, illusion. 
"The accuser of my brethren is cast down." 
Error is always the "accuser" of Truth; evil is 
always the "accuser" of Good. 

This is the " Satan that deceiveth the nations ; " 
and which must be ultimately destroyed by the 
irresistible power of true reasoning. The triumph 
of Truth over error is the triumph of Christ over 
Satan. 

The speaking of Truth is always God speaking. 
If you would heal your neighbor in body, mind, 
or environment, speak Truth to him. 

When, returning from the Captivity, Zerubabel, 
both King and Priest, undertook to rebuild the 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

temple, this was his watchword among his work- 
men: " Speak ye every man Truth to his 
neighbor." 

You are King in your kingdom. You are 
Zerubabel, both High Priest and King. If you 
have been in Babylonian Captivity, your body- 
temple has gotten out of repair. Your task is to 
rebuild it pure and holy, making it a fit temple 
for the Holy One. Only by speaking Truth can 
God's Temple be rebuilt. You must speak Truth 
concerning it; you must speak Truth to your 
neighbor. 

From the high standpoint of Truth you cannot 
say, "I Am sick," or "You are sick;" " I Am 
weak," or " You are weak ;" because the Son of God 
is never sick or weak. You cannot heal your neigh- 
bor by seeing him sick. See God in him ; — see 
the Son of God — his true Self. 

Thus you " speak Truth " to him ; and " the 
Truth shall make him free." 

If he is suffering in invalidism he is in his Baby- 
lonian Captivity, bound with the brazen fetters of 
error, which only Truth has power to break. To 
this end your spoken word of Truth is Omnipotent, 
when you realize that Truth spoken is God speak- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ing. The individual should always be able to say, 
" It is not I that speak, but the Father who dwelleth 
in me." Let God speak his Word through your 
lips. 

If my pneumonia or congestion is the outpict- 
uring of my fear or inordinate passion, or if my 
constipation is the result of my selfishness, how 
absurd to seek relief in drugs ! Would you dose 
a man for fear? Would you give cathartics for 
selfishness? The simple remedy is, the conscious- 
ness of Truth. Therefore " Speak ye every man 
Truth to his neighbor." 

Second : I Am what God is, 

Since I am what God is, the Substance of my 
Being is God-substance. 

Therefore I am perfect. I am the perfect Idea, 
created in, and sent forth from Divine Mind. 
There is Divine perfection in my essential Being. 
This is what I am. How can I be or manifest 
otherwise than what I am? Can the Idea change 
from the high standard of Divine perfection? Then 
as an emanation of Divine Mind, the offspring of 
Divine Being, I am perfect, because God, my 
Father, is perfect. Then how comes it that I 
seem to be manifesting otherwise than perfection? 

90 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

It is because I am an individual, an Idea, of Infi- 
nite Mind individuated. As an individual I have 
free choice and free will. Otherwise I am not an 
individual. And thus it naturally transpires that 
in the free use of my individual powers I make 
mistakes, the consequences of which I must 
stand. 

Nevertheless I am an individuation of the Infi- 
nite, and must therefore possess in potentiality 
every Divine attribute in perfection. Then it is 
the peculiar privilege of every individual to un- 
fold in- consciousness the fulness of that potenti- 
ality; until perfection in consciousness is attained, 
— until the estate of God is reached. 

This is the climax of all unfoldment, the end 
and object of creation. For God is continually 
rejoicing in beholding in his creation the unfold- 
ment of himself in the consciousness of his myriads 
of individuations. 

The object of Creation was, that God might 
reveal himself to himself by a universal unfold- 
ment in all these individuations. 

As we have said, mistakes are inevitable in the 
nature of objective reason and investigation. Yet 
they are inevitable only because man has sepa- 

91 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

rated himself in consciousness from the inexhaus- 
tible fountain of Infinite Wisdom. And all this 
seems natural in the nature of individual existence. 

After all, this separation from the Divine in con- 
sciousness is only an illusion ; for " in Him we 
live and move and have our Being," whether or 
not we are conscious of it. The fact remains. 
And our problem seems to be, to gain the con- 
sciousness of what we are. 

When we have learned well the lesson of listening 
to the Voice of Wisdom within, we shall cease to 
make mistakes, and shall be " led into all truth." 
We shall unfold our Divinity, as we listen to and 
obey this heavenly monitor. 

Now, since in my True Being I am the Image 
and Likeness of the Divine Idea, just so in my 
manifest expression I am the image and likeness 
of my own idea. The Divine Idea, in the Divine 
Consciousness, was brought forth in its Image and 
Likeness, as the Divine Man of the First Chapter 
of Genesis ; and the human idea, in the Adam- 
Consciousness, was brought forth after its image 
and likeness, as the Adam Man of the Second 
Chapter, obedient to the same universal law of 
expression. The one is expression on the Spirit- 

92 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

ual plane ; the other is expression on the natural 
plane, by the same law. 

Therefore God is not responsible for my imper- 
fect bodily expression. It is after my own like- 
ness. I am the expression of my own idea of 
myself. I am just as Spiritual or just as material 
as I think myself to be. " As a man thinketh in 
his heart, so is he." — - Prov. 23:3. 

Third : I Am Holy, because a Son of God. 

Whatever we predicate of God we may predicate 
of every Son of God, according to the foregoing 
reasoning. Of Divine origin we should reflect all 
Divine qualities and attributes — Holiness, Wis- 
dom, Love, Life, Strength, etc. For as the moon 
reflects the light of the sun, so the True man 
reflects the Divine Light of Wisdom, and the false 
man (Carnal Mind) reflects the inferior light of 
human thought. 

When we are still in thought, they say, we are 
reflecting. Reflecting what? Reflecting thoughts 
which come to the mind in that stillness. For the 
atmosphere is full of thoughts. Yet you are not 
at the mercy of these drift thoughts, if we may call 
them so. You have power to shut your door 
against all undesirable thoughts and admit only 

93 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

the class you choose. Like Daniel you may close 
your door to the street and continually have your 
" windows open towards Jerusalem." You may 
close your door to every debasing thought which 
would tend to wreck your life, and be open and 
receptive to the Royal heritage of the Sons of 
God. This is the " door " which you " shut and 
no man openeth," or you open and no man shut- 
teth. 

Knowing your power to choose and act, you may 
compel Carnal Mind to be still — to stand aside as 
it were, and let the Heavenly Man have full sway. 
Then will you be a Divine reflector of Divine 
Principles. 

Fourth: God's Willis my Will. 

Of course you make this Affirmation when real- 
izing your True Self. And here you can say, 
" God works through me to will and to do what- 
ever I ought to do." It is impossible to conceive 
the vast power of the will, when we realize the 
Divine Will working with our will. 

God's Will is forever operating, whether we 
think so or not. As Matthew Arnold said : 
" There is a power not ourselves that forever 



94 



THE "THIRD DAY" 

makes for righteousness ; " — and whether we are 
in obedience or not. 

When you have conquered self so fully that you 
can say: "Not my will, but Thy Will," and at 
the same time have the realizing sense of the Om- 
nipotent W 7 ILL working in you, — then are you in 
a position to begin to know your Omnipotent 
Powers. For the greatest power and freedom for 
the individual do not consist in carrying out his 
own sweet will, but in making the Divine his own 
sweet Will. 

To unfold your Divine Consciousness and Power 
is the goal of all your struggles. To this end 
these Affirmations may be helpful. 

First: You must know God — in Consciousness. 
This necessitates a true conception of him. This 
is your greatest picture in your gallery for fre- 
quent meditation on and communion with. 

Second : You must know yourself a Son of 
God, perfect and complete. 

Third : You must know your own Holiness as a 
Son of God. 

Fourth : Your will must be swallowed up in the 
Divine Will. 

Having " gathered together the waters " of the 
95 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

mind in this " one place " — the place ot Divinity 
— so as to form the highest possible conception of 
God by means of this beautiful imagery, " the 
Dry Land appears," — the most substantial basis 
of a great character is formed. 



96 



IV 



THE " FOURTH DAY " : — THE " TWO GREAT 
LIGHTS " 

" And God made Two Great Lights, the Greater Light to 
rule the Day and the Lesser Light to rule the Night."-— 
Gen. i : 16. 

WHETHER advancing in the Divine Way of evolu- 
tion from the Human to the Divine Consciousness, 
or plodding along in the old path of the old Con- 
sciousness, — there are " Two Great Lights " by 
one or the other of which every man is guided, — 
the one having power to reveal God and unfold 
the God-Consciousness in man, the other affording 
light of a different and inferior order, quite insuffi- 
cient and incompetent to reveal or point the way 
to God. To the Children of the Regeneration 
both these lights are in evidence and daily use, 
but to those on the plane of Generation without 
Regeneration only the " Lesser Light " is known. 
They are in Spiritual darkness. 

97 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

The Sun is the symbol of the " Greater Light," 
which " rules the Day " of Spiritual Understand- 
ing. The " Greater Light " is Spiritual Wisdom. 
The Moon is the symbol of the " Lesser Light," 
which " rules the Night " of unregenerate Carnal 
Mind. The " Lesser Light " is Intellect. 

" The Two Great Lights " by which we are 
guided are Spiritual Wisdom and Intellectual 
Wisdom, or for the sake of a distinction we may 
designate them as WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE. 

There is a greater light than Intellect ; for this 
is a mere reflection. The " Greater Light " is 
Christ, the " Light of the world." And the Christ 
we may identify with Truth or Wisdom. John 
said of the coming One : " That was the True 
Light, that lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world." This Light Paul called, " The Wis- 
dom of God." 

Spiritual Wisdom, then, is the " Light of the 
World," the Christ, which finds its reflection in 
Intellect. 

Unregenerate man knows and acknowledges no 
other light than Intellect. Yet he knows not his 
ignorance. For intellect is " wise in its own 
conceit." 

98 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

The wide difference between original and re- 
flected light is due to the imperfect reflector. In- 
tellect neither reflects the full intensity nor the full 
quality of the True Light. 

If the moon in the heavens were a perfect re- 
flector, the sun's and the moon's rays would be 
exactly alike, both in intensity and quality. So 
by correspondence, if Man were a perfect reflector, 
he would reflect through intellect Heavenly Wis- 
dom ; and then there would be no difference be- 
tween Divine and Human Wisdom. Man cannot 
be a perfect reflector until he arrives at the Divine 
Consciousness, where he has continuous illumina- 
tion. Then he dwells in the Light, and is the 
Light. This is the Theosophist's " Nirvana." 

But reflected light is always modified by the re- 
flector, on whatever plane, whether natural or 
Spiritual. 

The Masculine and Feminine principle is uni- 
versal throughout nature on every plane. It is 
the principle, " whereby everything hangeth in the 
equilibrium of balance," as the Caballists say. 

From the Divine Being in the heaven of heavens 
all the way down to the humblest monad in the 
Kosmgs, through every manifestation of life, this 

99 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

biological principle obtains, as the basis of all ex- 
istence, as the guarantee for the perpetuity of all 
things, as the basis for the continued Being of both 
God and man. 

Therefore, as the sun shines upon the earth 
with its masculine and feminine rays of Heat and 
Light, making the earth teem with living forms 
through the generating power of these equili- 
brated creative rays, — just so the " Greater Light," 
— the Divine " Sun of Righteousness" ■ — shines 
upon the human consciousness with its masculine 
and feminine rays of Love and Wisdom, with a 
corresponding generating power; which on the 
Spiritual plane we call by the higher name, Regen- 
eration. This is what Isaiah means, when he says : 
" Upon you that fear my Name shall the Sun of 
Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." 

Christ is the omnipresent " Sun of Righteous- 
ness," and thus the " Light of the world." Not 
only are the double rays of the Sun, heat and 
light, a wedded pair, but the double rays of the 
" Sun of Righteousness," " Love and Wisdom," are 
also a wedded pair. Neither can they in either 
case be divorced, without forfeiting the law of 
Life, the generating principle. These biological 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

rays of the Sun falling upon the moon become 
vitally changed by the moon absorbing the Heat 
rays, so that it can reflect to us only the Light 
rays. Consequently we have the words " lunacy " 
and " moon-struck," to indicate the death-dealing 
effect of Light divorced from Heat. In like 
manner, and by the exact Law of Correspondences, 
mortal man being an imperfect reflector, the Light 
of Intellect has lost its quickening Life-begetting 
element of Love, and is therefore in the " moon- 
struck" consciousness of mortality. The Con- 
sciousness of Life can be gained only by the 
restoration of the full True Light of the " Sun of 
Righteousness," equipped with its biological rays 
and regenerating power. 

GOD is the Great Original Light — " The Sun 
of Righteousness," Omnipotent with generating 
and regenerating power (for this creative power is 
always God-power, wherever you find it) ; and 
Christ is the Illuminating Ray — the Divine " Efful- 
gence " — the " Only Begotten," proceeding from 
the Father. " I Am the Light of the world," — 
the Shining Light — " The Effulgence of the 
Father's Glory" (Heb. 1:3). That is: God is 
the Sun of Righteousness ; and Christ is the 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Shining Light, proceeding from — sent forth from 
— the Father. And this Christ or Divine " Efful- 
gence" is "The Wisdom of God." " Christ the 
Power of God and the Wisdom of God." This 
interior Wisdom, which illuminates the mind, is 
the wonderful Effulgence of the " Greater Light." 

Consequently the True Man is conscious of the 
Light, and walks in the Light. But the unawak- 
ened, the unregenerate, continue in the dream life 
of material conceptions. Being children of the 
Night instead of the Day, they are incapable of 
perceiving the Greater Light of Spiritual Wisdom, 
notwithstanding its omnipresence ; because it is 
Light of a different kind, on a different plane, and 
must therefore require a higher order of percep- 
tives to cognize it. 

But in the sense consciousness they know noth- 
ing better than the Lesser Light. Hence mortal 
man does not know Truth. His conceptions are 
misconceptions. He deals in things of the Night. 

Through the benighting effect of the Sin-Con- 
sciousness many men see very dimly, even on the 
plane of intellect. Their light is the moon in her 
quarter. And the "dark of the moon" is none 



1 02 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

too severe a term to represent the deep darkness 
of some beclouded intellects. 

But in order that Intellect may be fully illumi- 
nated with its " full-moon " glory, and realize its 
transcendent powers, there must be a New Birth, 
an awakening to a New Consciousness. There 
must be a New Creation. Then through the 
regenerating power of the Christ within there will 
be a regenerated intellect, an illuminated mind. 

Spiritual Perception sees clearly in the efful- 
gence of Divine Wisdom, — like the " X-Ray," 
penetrating deeper than the external appearance, 
which only sense perception beholds, into the 
very substance of things, — finding beneath the 
phenomenal the eternal Spiritual Reality. 

" When He the Spirit of Truth is come, He 
shall guide you into all Truth." That is, when 
the Greater Light of the Christ Illumination shines 
upon your soul, — when your Spiritual sight is 
opened, — then all the illusions of the "moon- 
struck " Sin-Consciousness will be swallowed up 
in the Spiritual Light of the Christ-Consciousness, 
as the moon disappears in the sun's greater light. 
This is Salvation, — sense lost in Spirit — Illusion 
swallowed up in Reality. This is your " First 

103 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Resurrection," where corruption and death disap- 
pear from your consciousness ; because " this cor- 
ruptible shall put on incorruption," and " death 
shall be swallowed up in life." 

For the end and purpose of this Spiritual evo- 
lution is the transformation of the consciousness, 
through material conceptions yielding to Spiritual 
Understanding; until the higher plane of the 
Spiritual Consciousness is reached, and the body 
consequently undergoes a corresponding trans- 
formation. 

We shall receive much or little from reading 
our Bible, according to whether we see it in the 
Greater or the Lesser Light. For in the one case 
the mind will receive a wonderful Spiritual insight, 
and the soul will be fed with the manna of heaven, 
and in the other case it will receive only the intel- 
lectual ideas involved. 

The " letter of the Word " is strictly intellectual ; 
and it is so human to see only intellectually ! Yet 
there is a wonderful mine of Spiritual wealth hid- 
den beneath the letter, if only men would study 
to understand. Few see beyond " the letter that 
killeth." 

All the bitter controversies which divide Christ- 
104 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

endom into sects, arise from the different con- 
structions put on the letter, to carry out intellect's 
plan or conception, — quite overlooking the Spirit- 
ual idea, for the sake of which the symbolic letter 
was written. 

When we learn to see in the radiance of the 
Greater Light, we shall read an entirely different 
story. We shall behold Spiritual things, which 
afford us food and transforming Light. We shall 
see that the stories, incidents, characters, and 
histories of the Bible are symbolic of correspond- 
ential experiences in the many-sided kaleidoscope 
of human life. In that wonderful light Time and 
Space are eliminated ; so that everything is Now 
and Here ; and the Word is a living Word — in 
the "Living Present" — always active and alive. 

" If any man walk in the Day he stumbleth not, 
because the (Greater) Light is in him " (John 
ii :g). But they who walk in the Night (of the 
Lesser Light) stumble at the contradictions of the 
letter, which are irreconcilable from the letter's 
standpoint. 

Theologians will never succeed in harmonizing 
their differences, until they open their eyes to the 
Spiritual meaning of the Word, when they will 

105 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

see that Truth is One and indivisible, symmetrical 
and unrendable, — the " seamless robe" of Christ. 
Spiritual sight will not only transform our The- 
ology, but will transform our world ; because be- 
ing ourselves transformed, we shall see through 
new eyes. A man of purely material thought 
sees all things crudely material ; one in the con- 
sciousness of sin sees the sinner everywhere ; while 
the Spiritually awakened man — in the Spiritual 
Consciousness — sees divinely, as through God's 
eyes, the Divine in everything. He has a " New 
Heaven and a New Earth." 

People without Spiritual vision always read 
scripture literally, expecting the world to be de- 
stroyed by and by, and a new world created out 
of the wreck of the old ; but they who see Spirit- 
ually see the Spiritual everywhere, having trans- 
formed their world through the transformation of 
their minds, — thus fulfilling the scripture. 

Emerson said : " It animates me to create my 
own world through the purification of my soul." 
Paul expresses the same idea thus : " Be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind " (Rom. 
12 :2). 

We always see from our own standpoint — 
1 06 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

through our own thought-spectacles. The man 
of material thought sees materially; and the man 
of Spiritual thought sees Spiritually. We see 
according to what we are ; and we are according 
to our seeing. And so Carlyle said : " What thou 
seest, that thou beest." 

Thus the world you see is exactly according to 
the pattern of your own thought. Therefore if it 
displeases you, you may go to work and change 
it. When you have transformed yourself, your 
world will be transformed. Therefore it is not the 
outer world that is to be destroyed. The old 
world to be burned up and destroyed is the miser- 
able world of your old miserable conceptions. 
The entire work of destruction and conflagration 
is to be accomplished within by the " Consuming 
Fire " of God in the soul. The purifying fire will 
so transform you that you will see a " New Heaven 
and a New Earth." For what you see in others is 
only what is in yourself; else you could not see it 
in others. This is what Jesus meant when he said, 
" Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy 
brother's eye, and considerest not the beam that 
is in thine own eye?" (Lu. 6:41.) The color of 
your own thought-spectacles colors everything 

107 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

you look upon. You are always looking through 
the mist of your own thought. And thus Jesus 
said : " With what judgment ye judge ye shall be 
judged" (Mat. 7: 1). Then the adverse judgment 
you render of another condemns you of the same 
thing; because you cannot see what is not in 
yourself. Then if you would see your brother 
reformed, your first duty is to reform yourself. 
This is the great amalgam that will bring out the 
Gold of Goodness in yonr brother. This is the 
secret of all true reform. Repression and prisons 
do not reform ; they only make emphatic the evil. 
Make emphatic the Good in your brother by rec- 
ognizing it there, if you would bring out the Good 
that is in him. " Thou hypocrite ! first cast the 
beam out of thine own eye ; then shalt thou see 
clearly to cast out the mote from thy brother's 
eye " (Lu. 6:42). 

This is the scientific way; but it reveals the un- 
welcome fact that the fault is in yourself. The 
critic may always be criticised. " The fault is in 
the finder." " The pure in heart see God " — not 
evil. When you recognize the Son of God both 
in yourself and your brother you will see only per- 
fection ; you will see as God sees. In fact, your 

108 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

seeing will be God's seeing. Then if you think 
your brother needs reforming, study to see him a 
Son of God ; refuse to see the appearance of sin 
in him ; steadfastly and persistently declare his 
perfection, until the false appearance disappears 
from his life and he manifests according to your 
reformed thought. Perverted humanity is ever 
solicitous for and condemnatory of the other, sel- 
dom seeing his own faults. 

The thoughts you send out into the world will 
surely be heard from again ; and they will return 
to you with their legitimate fruit. 

Your thought of cruel hostility to your neigh- 
bor will some time come down upon your own 
head in neuralgiac or other torturing experience, 
according to natural law. If you send out the 
seed thought of theft by coveting your neighbor's 
beautiful goods, jewels, apparel, house, equipage, 
or good looks, even — you need not think it a 
strange or unjust experience if a veritable thief 
breaks into your house and steals your purse. 
Covetousness was the thief-thought you sent out 
and it brought you the thief. You are simply 
reaping what you have been sowing — drawing to 
yourself your own. 

109 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Jesus said : " He that is angry with his brother 
is a murderer" (Mat. 5:21, 22). If, then, you 
have had bitter anger and cruel hatred against 
your brother you need not think it a matter of 
strange injustice or cruel fate if some dark night 
a veritable murderer should spring upon you from 
some dark alley. In your anger you sent out the 
murder-thought and it brought you the murderer. 
Not only do " curses like chickens come home to 
roost," but every thought brings its legitimate 
returns. Therefore when you curse your neighbor 
you but curse yourself. Your curse can never 
reach him if he stands firmly and securely in 
Truth, conscious of his protection. It must by 
natural law rebound to you. " His mischief shall 
return upon his own head, and his violent dealing 
shall come down upon his own pate" (Ps. 7: 16). 
" With what measure ye mete it shall be measured 
to you again" (Mat. 7:2). Then I may well ex- 
pect that my stingy thought may bring me short 
weight from the grocer. I am always getting 
what belongs to me. Shall I infer that law is not 
good because it brings me evil for my evil? It 
will just as faithfully bring me good for my good. 
Law is impartial and always just. If I throw a 

no 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

muddy ball into the air it soon returns to soil my 
hands and clothes ; but if I throw a clean ball the 
same clean ball returns to me. I am always re- 
ceiving my own. My pure thoughts return to 
bless me and my evil thoughts return to curse me. 
I am receiving just what I give and therefore have 
no ground of complaint. 

If, then, I am suffering from painful conditions 
I must look for the cause within myself; and 
knowing the cause I may find the remedy. This 
is the mission of pain. Therefore it is good — -not 
evil. The cause and cure are both to be found 
within. By purifying my thought I shall purify 
my body ; by correcting my thought I shall cor- 
rect the bodily expression ; and this is my 
healing. For my body always represents me 
faithfully. 

Regeneration reconstructs the body by first 
reconstructing the soul. For body is the soul's 
expression. Then if by a lifetime of erroneous 
thinking my body has developed inharmonious 
conditions, its regeneration and purification must 
require time also. Neither the correction and 
restoration of mind or body can be accomplished 
in a day. Both require time. That is to say: 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Regeneration is a process — an unfoldment — 
not an instantaneous experience. Yet the Spirit's 
time and man's time are vastly different. For we 
read that, " One day with the Lord is as a thou- 
sand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 
Pet. 3:8). In other words, with God there is no 
time. Therefore regeneration would require no 
time, if we had not the human mind to deal with, 
which is slow to grasp things of Infinity. 

It has been built up in time, and can unfold only 
as fast as it can comprehend and accept. Regen- 
eration is not merely the correction of present 
thoughts ; but the whole subconscious mind con- 
taining all the stored up thoughts of the past has 
got to be purified and redeemed ; which is a vast 
undertaking, from the human point of view. 
Nevertheless as we proceed we shall find that in 
this work of the Spirit we are handling forces 
which are very potent. 

Words which stand as a symbol and expression 
of Truth, when spoken with the realization of 
their meaning and omnipotence, will be found to 
possess a certain positive, dynamic power to de- 
stroy undesirable conditions by the intensity of 
their vibrations ; so that we have not to wait the 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

slower process of law on the human plane, for the 
undoing of the past, preparatory to rebuilding. 
God's time is Now. " For the Word of God is 
quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged 
sword" (Heb. 4:12), when it is spoken in the 
Greater Light of Spiritual Understanding. The 
reason our words are often barren of results is, 
that we have spoken them only intellectually — in 
the Lesser Light; the soul has not spoken. But 
in the natural order of things — " first that which 
is natural ; afterward that which is Spiritual " — 
we first comprehend the natural meaning and pur- 
port, before we can receive the Spiritual revela- 
tion. We must bring our words into the inner 
chamber of the soul, and baptize them with the 
effulgence of the Greater Light, before they are 
clothed with omnipotent power. 

Then we can send them forth with their dynamic 
power to accomplish results. Only with words 
thus prepared and empowered can you speak " as 
one having authority." They are words of Truth. 
Such words " shall not return to you void, but 
shall accomplish that which you please." They 
are the w 7 ords of Christ, understandingly spoken. 
" It is not I that speak, but the Father within." 

113 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

All power comes from the Father-fountain within, 
— the Wisdom-fountain. 

Said an Indian Sage : " No man ever knew any- 
thing by seeking Wisdom without: he must know 
how to interrogate himself, and how to answer 
himself, before the outer universe will disclose to 
him its hidden arcana." This was the great lesson 
Moses had to learn at the " Burning Bush," as he 
communed with his Higher Self, whose name is 
" / Am " — Jehovah — Christ — The Lord ; — 
whose word is authority. There is a Higher Self, 
which knows all Wisdom and Truth. " Commune 
with your own heart, and be still." 

" As I walked with myself, 
I talked with myself: 
Myself said this unto me : 
Make friends with thyself; 
Be true to thyself; 
Thyself thy good angel shall be." 

The " Greater Light " is WISDOM ; the " Lesser 
Light" is Knowledge. The one is Divine; the 
other is human. One is of Eternity; the other 
of Time. Knowledge may be found without; but 
Wisdom can be found only within. For human 
wisdom (so called) man looks without, looks to 

114 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

teachers ; consults books, — external authority. 
What he finds is Knowledge — not Wisdom ; opin- 
ion — not Truth. Our religious teachers have 
looked without for Wisdom, studied church au- 
thorities, — the " traditions of the Fathers," like 
Pharisees of old. What they found and gave was 
Knowledge — not Wisdom; because they were 
guided by the Lesser Light. As far as they were 
able to listen to the Inner Voice they received the 
illumination of the Inner Light of Wisdom. 

The Greater Light never conceals itself. God 
never hides his face. What the Bible says about 
God hiding his face on account of man's sin is 
metaphor, written to show the darkening effect of 
sin on the mind. But God is " the same yester- 
day, to-day, and forever," unchanging in his 
steady shining Light. Man does all the " hiding," 
"concealing," and " darkening." 

By correspondence Wisdom is the Silver of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, and stands for Riches in 
general, — Spiritual Riches. Therefore, when we 
have the Spiritual illumination, we have the con- 
sciousness of Spiritual opulence. 

Paul was speaking of this opulence in conscious- 
ness when he said : 

115 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

" All things are yours, for ye are Christ's. " 
This was Emerson's realization when he said : 

"lam owner of the sphere, 
Of the Seven Stars and the Solar Year ; 
Of Caesar's hand and Plato's brain, 
Of Lord Christ's heart and Shakespeare's strain." 

Of the false Riches of error, the requirement is, 
" Sell that thou hast." 

Read the story of the " Rich Young Man " in 
Matt. 19, and learn a beautiful lesson in meta- 
physics. The young man asks : 

" Good Master, what shall I do to inherit Eter- 
nal Life?" 

Hear the metaphysical answer of the Great 
Metaphysician : 

" Sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven." This is 
purely a metaphysical lesson. 

For we are not allowed to apply it to any one 
materially, because the command is, " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged." But as a metaphysical 
statement it applies to all. For there is Spiritual 
buying and selling, and we are engaged in both, 

and must be. 

116 



THE "FOURTH DAY" 

Solomon said, " Buy the Truth and sell it not." 

Of course this is strictly metaphysics and noth- 
ing else. So with the parable. 

Truth is the True Riches — the true Coin of the 
Realm. 

Error is the false Riches of the realm of Illusion. 

The price we pay for Truth is Experience — 
thought-experience. 

Experience is the price paid for :>ur present 
state of mind or consciousness — for any state of 
consciousness. And we hold to or value our 
acquisitions, whether material, intellectual, or 
Spiritual, in proportion to the greatness of the 
price paid. 

For our present consciousness of error and sin 
we have paid a great price — a whole life-time of 
false thought, buying false riches. This is why 
we cling to it so tenaciously, and refuse to part 
with it by repentance — refuse to "sell what we 
have," as we are required to do. We cannot enter 
the Kingdom of Heaven until we have " sold 
out" this entire false consciousness, — and this is 
repentance. Thus we become " the poor in spirit," 
who are " Blessed," because only by becoming 
" poor" as to the false riches can we fully desire, 

117 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

or be receptive to, the True Riches. This experi- 
ence of poverty and the consequent new opulence 
places us in position to " give to the poor " — to 
give of the New Riches to those who have become 
" the Lord's poor" — " poor in spirit," whose is 
"the kingdom of heaven." 

Have you found the " Greater Light " of Spirit- 
ual Truth, which is the Silver of the Kingdom — 
the " True Coin of the Realm " ? If not, " sell that 
thou hast" of the accumulations of falsity — then 
" Buy the Truth, and sell it not." 

" I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the 
fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment, 
that thou mayst be clothed, that the shame of thy 
nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes 
with eye salve, that thou mayest see." — Rev. 3 : 
18 



THE " FIFTH DAY. — THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION 

" And God said, ' Let the Waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving Creature that hath Life, and Fowl that may fly 
above the Earth in the open firmament of heaven.' " — Gen. 



This Chapter treats of the Creative Power of 
Thought. 

According to this Allegory the origin, source, 
and beginning of all action and manifestation is 
the Divine THOUGHT with purpose, expressed by, 
" GOD SAID," — put in execution by the Divine 
Will, expressed by, " Let it be done." 

Mind is the Creator of the Idea, and Will is the 
executive Power, which executes the Divine Pur- 
pose ; that the Divine Thought may be visibly ex- 
pressed. This is the universal order of mental 
action, as tersely pictured in this unique allegory. 

Infinite Mind is thus the Great " First Cause " 
and Origin of all things. Whence it follows, that 

119 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

all causation is primarily mental. For back of all 
existences is the Eternal Logos ; and back of the 
Logos is Infinite Mind, the Great First Cause. 
Indeed, back of all forces of every description is 
the Divine Consciousness, infinite in thought 
power; co-existent and co-infinite with the Eternal 
Will. From this Wisdom-Will proceeds the 
Logos-Thought clothed with infinite possibilities, 
because backed up by the Infinite Personality, — 
Consciousness-WlLL. 

Now, since Man is a Son of God, the Human 
Mind follows the Divine order, though finite in 
its conceptions and power, — yet having infinite 
possibilities before it, by reason of its Divine 
origin. 

The unfoldment of the Human Mind and Con- 
sciousness is the great theme of this Genesis Sym- 
bology; in which the "Great Deep" represents 
Formless Mind (necessarily the human mind), 
and its " waters " represent Thoughts. Bearing 
this in mind, namely, that throughout the Word, 
Seas, waters, rivers, clouds, etc., all represent some 
phase or principle of mind, we shall have one 
point clear for arriving at the symbology under 
which Spiritual Truth is expressed. 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

Form is an inherent attribute of thought. 
Thought, being definite, is a thing of form. It is a 
definite thing, created out of the Infinite Formless 
— or Unmanifest. For in the (suppositional) 
" beginning " there is no form ; everything is 
" without form and void ; " until from the Divine 
Consciousness the Eternal Will decrees, " Let 
there be Light." The consequent result follows : 
" There was Light." 

The Infinite Will and Consciousness constitute 
the Divine Personality, or Individuality, in which 
all Attributes are contained. 

God is personal in the sense of individual Con- 
sciousness and Will ; but impersonal in the sense 
of bodily form — unless forsooth all forms in the 
universe are his infinite personality. 

Strictly speaking, the word " person " comes 
from persona, a mask, — primarily referring to the 
mask worn by actors, to make them represent 
what they were not. The " persona " hid the real 
man ; and the " mask " represented the false man. 
Therefore what we call the person is not the Real 
Man, but only the mask-man, or false man, whom 
the human, undeveloped man calls real; because 



121 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

there is " darkness on the face of the Deep," not 
yet overcome. 

When we say that thought is a thing of form, 
we do not necessarily mean shape, but mode or 
state of being primarily ; which eventually becomes 
manifest in ultimate expression in shape. 

Therefore Thought, sent forth by the Eternal 
Energy of the Wisdom-Will is formative and crea- 
tive. " Through faith we understand the Worlds 
were framed by the Word of God." — Heb. 11:3. 
In the Creative process the Divine Idea is the 
Spiritual Germ, the living " Monad " of Leibnitz 
and Plato, the creative " Logos " of Philo and St. 
John, — the biological Entity forever seeking its 
etheric protoplasm, where it may find expression 
in visible form after its own likeness. The biolog- 
ical nature and creative power is not only charac- 
teristic of God's thought, but of all thought. 
Because they are "living Creatures " of the mind, 
they have existence, and therefore continue to 
live. Biology is the universal Creative Way. 

Thought derives its energy and creative vibra- 
tion from the conscious Will, which sends it forth. 
This vibrative Energy molds the Protoplasmic 
Ether-Substance ; and visible form is the conse- 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

quent Creation. For Idea expresses itself in form, 
the material expression of which it derives from 
the etheric matrix in which it is conceived. 

The True Self is Divine — a Son or " Spark of 
Divinity " — possessing infinite potentialities, which 
the individual is to bring forth into expression. 
For man is a threefold being ■ — Spirit, Soul, and 
Body ; and these three are one — a trinity in 
unity. 

Body has form of material visible to the phys- 
ical sight ; Soul has form of finer material, invisible 
to the physical sight but visible to the psychic 
sight; Spirit is the Divine Entity, whose form is, 
not shape, but " state of being," invisible either to 
physical or psychic sight, and visible only to God 
and every Son of God. Only Spirit can cognize 
Spirit. 

This is the Spiritual Man, the True Self, the 
Ego ; — the Man of Divine lineaments — the " Like- 
ness of God," — whom he pronounced " Very 
Good." This True Self is the " Son in the bosom 
of the Father," who is always in harmony with, 
and always "working together with God." What 
the aspiring human being must do, in order to 
unfold his potentialities, is to recognize and be- 

123 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

come conscious of this Higher Self. In this way- 
may the Soul unfold Divinity in Consciousness. 

This is the way to form our high Ideals. This 
is the "mount" where the heavenly vision is 
given, where the " pattern " for all our creations is 
" shown." And here we hear the command : " See 
thou make all things according to the pattern 
shown in the mount." 

Our work in Spiritual unfoldment is, to become 
consciously what we are potentially, — to express 
in externals what we are in our Inmost Being — 
the True Self. 

Man is finite in consciousness, because he has 
not unfolded his infinite possibilities. As the 
" Great Deep " is an infinite expanse, so mind is a 
free expanse omnipresent : — not like the body 
limited to the dimensions of the physical form, — 
but really, though not consciously, omnipresent, 
and making the body the centre of its operations. 
Wherever your thought is, there in the boundless 
expanse you are functioning, whether in your 
chamber or in distant countries. You belong to 
the universe, and the universe belongs to you. 

You are here to unfold the consciousness of your 
infinity. For what you are conscious of, that you 

124 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

become. We speak of " Infinite possibilities " for 
man. This implies that it is possible for you to 
become conscious of your omnipresence, omni- 
science, and omnipotence. 

Prophets and Seers are men who have made 
somewhat of these attainments. They have con- 
sciously gone to distant countries and seen and 
reported what was actually taking place there, 
while sitting in their chambers. Swedenborg had 
many such experiences. He even went into the 
highest heavens, and held converse with the angels. 
St. Paul was " caught up into the Third Heaven, 
and heard unutterable things." So real was the 
experience that he said of it, " whether in the 
body or out of the body I cannot tell; God 
knoweth." 

Of this universal mind-expanse Emerson said : 
"There is One Mind common to all men; and 
each man is an inlet to the same and to all the 
same." 

When we come to know the Higher Self — that 
we are indeed Sons of God — we shall begin to un- 
derstand that we " live and move and have our 
Being in God," who is Omnipresent Spirit; that 
living in the Omnipresence, we draw on the whole 

125 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

fountain for all our needs ; because Sons of Omni- 
presence we are " an inlet to the same and to all 
the same." 

" Son thou art ever with Me, and All that I 
have is thine." Lu. 15 : 31. There is absolutely 
no limit to the possibilities of realization, except 
what we have prescribed for ourselves. God has 
not circumscribed his Son with limits. Walt Whit- 
man, seeing this, exclaimed : " From this hour I 
decree myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines, 
my own master, total and absolute." 

" Let the Waters bring forth the moving Creature 
that hath Life." 

This expresses the law of action for Creative 
Mind. Since all causation is primarily in mind, 
active, living, creative mind has power to generate 
active, living thoughts, Wherefore Thoughts are 
active, living entities, — not dead things, — "Crea- 
tures that have Life." Thoughts do not perish. 
Living Mind's creations are not still-born. Dead 
things are not born of the living. 

Since, then, thoughts do not perish, but live in 
the ether about us, there must be a World-Con- 
sciousness, corresponding to the individual Con- 



126 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

sciousness, yet larger and all-comprehensive of 
human thought. 

This is the world to be redeemed through indi- 
viduals coming into the Christ-Consciousness, that 
they may become Light-bearers to the World- 
Consciousness. " I Am the Light of the World" 
(World-Consciousness)." The "Christ must be 
lifted up " in this World-Consciousness for its re- 
demption, — lifted up by every individual who 
receives the Christ illumination. 

This World-Consciousness is a World-Phono- 
graph, from which the rank and file of humanity 
draw their inspiration, and into which they are 
pouring their thoughts. And it is quite possible 
that a " sensitive " may from this World-phono- 
graph reproduce the speech of an Ingersoll, a 
Beecher, or a Brooks, marked with all the charac- 
teristics of those personages ; while they them- 
selves may be far beyond the reach and plane of 
those who think they are receiving a communica- 
tion from them. This is the psychic plane. 

If Infinite Mind i.s the great Creative power and 
source of all power, what part does the human 
mind play? It is like the local dynamo, which 
receives its electric power from the Central Dy- 

127 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

namo, without which it is entirely powerless. Yet 
a wheel in the local factory cannot move without 
the local dynamo. Each is dependent on the 
other. To the creations of the factory it is as if 
the local dynamo were the only power. Yet its 
efficiency depends absolutely on its continuous 
and perfect connection with the great Central. 

What is eternally created in Infinite Mind must 
be, as it were, recreated by the human mind, act- 
ing in free deliberation as though everything de- 
pended on itself. Yet when the human maintains 
its conscious connection with the Infinite, its ac- 
tion and power will be in perfect accord with the 
Infinite ; and its creations will be the more perfect 
and God-like; because only thus can the finite 
realize that " it is God that worketh in me to will 
and to do." 

Man is the containment or compendium of the 
whole Creation. He is the Microcosm; and re- 
creates what God has Spiritually created ; thus 
making his world within as perfect as the Macro- 
cosm without. 

For in him all has been zVz-folded — all Divine 
ideas, the whole creation — all potentialities. Oth- 
erwise he would have no power of development; 

128 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

he could unfold nothing. " Thou couldest have 
no power . . . except it were given thee from 
above," the source of all power. The local 
dynamo can do nothing, except it be given it 
from above, — except there be a power back of 
itself. 

Man is the local dynamo, un-fold'mg what has 
already been /^-folded. He is always " working 
together with God." He is working; yet it is 
God working ; He is creating ideas ; yet all ideas 
have been eternally created, — they are eternal. 
''There is nothing new under the sun." Then 
whatever appears in manifestation eternally was, 
or more properly, eternally is. Then we must 
conclude that creation has always been, and that 
Man has always been ; because God has always 
been. 

God and his creation — Mind and Idea — are 
co-eternal. Each imolies the other, and is the 
necessity of the other. Therefore Creation, in- 
cluding Man, is God's necessity. Without thought 
Mind would not be mind. So without Man 
(Mind's Idea) God could not be. 

It is equally true of finite mind that it must ex- 
press its idea. For thought ever seeks its expres- 

129 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

sion ; which may appear in (symbolic) words or in 
bodily conditions. In my microcosmic world all 
my thoughts are manifested or expressed in my 
body; so that my body represents me. I am 
expressed in my body. " In Thy Book (my 
body) all my members are written" — all my 
thoughts are expressed. 

It is universally true that " without the word 
was not anything made ; " because Thought is the 
only creative power. Consequently in my little 
world my " word is made flesh" —my thought 
becomes concrete in flesh — is expressed in body, 
where every thought brings forth " after its kind." 

" Every idle word that men shall speak, they 
shall give account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment." Every word, whether good or bad, is 
faithfully recorded in the register of the body; 
and you are receiving exact justice in correspond- 
ing judgment, according to the law of cause and 
effect. 

For " the judgment is (always) set, and the 
books are opened, and every man is judged out 
of the Book of (his) life." Every thought you 
send forth goes on its mission of blessing or curs- 
ing according to its quality, the good word to 

130 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

bless and the " idle word " to curse — whom but 
yourself ? Your neighbor it cannot harm, unless 
he open his door to the evil thought. Fear or 
passion will open any door to let every enemy in. 
But he who stands firmly in Truth has no fear or 
danger. " He is safe from the strife of tongues." 
" By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy 
words shalt thou be condemned." Righteousness 
(or Christ) is both judge and jury, and your 
words (thoughts) are witnesses against you in this 
court; and Impartial Law executes the righteous 
judgment of the court, Righteous Judgment 
has been going on all our lives; and we have been 
reaping the bitter fruit of our " idle words " until 
" the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint," 
and weary with the burdens we have imposed upon 
ourselves, we seek relief from sin and surcease 
from sorrow. So bitter is the fruit, we are tired 
and sick of sin. In hope of restoration, harmony, 
and peace, we turn from these illusions in search 
of Truth as the remedy for error's sad outpictur- 
kig. Yet notwithstanding the inevitableness of the 
law in the expression of thought in the body, — 
these sad effects may be entirely obliterated by 
the corrective power of Truth, which has in itself 

131 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

omnipotent power, by reason of its Divine Prin- 
ciple. Error in itself has no power; it does not 
even exist in the realm of Reality ; it is illusion. 
How then can it become manifest in the body? 

That power of expression, instead of being in 
the error, is wholly due to the creative power of 
mind. If the individual mind is so perverted that 
it believes error to be truth, its creations will be 
of a corresponding order, so that its manifesta- 
tions will be perverted accordingly. Indeed, the 
entire consciousness is perverted, and has become 
a sin-consciousness. What surprise, that diseases 
appear in expression ! 

When you stand with the whole mind invigo- 
rated with the realization of Truth, you can send 
forth your Word of Truth with great dynamic 
power; which is due to a power intrinsic in Truth 
itself, yet dependent on the mind's realization 
of Truth's omnipotence. For the mind is that 
local dynamo, on which Truth itself depends for 
its power to become manifest in externals. 

Therefore, your " Spoken Word " has very great 
power; — it is enough to raise the dead. Error 
is a coward in Truth's presence, and must flee be- 
fore it, because of its very falsity. Therefore, you 

132 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

may speak your word of Truth with the greatest 
assurance of its success. " So shall My Word be, 
that goeth forth out of My mouth ; it shall ac- 
complish that which I please, and prosper in the 
thing whereunto I send it" (Is. 55:11). This is 
true of your word ; because the speaker is the " I 
Am" — the "I," the Divine One within, who 
always speaks from the standpoint of Truth. 
Truth is God's Word, whoever utters it ; and its 
power will be commensurate with your realization 
of it as the Omnipotent " Word of the Lord." 

Our difficulty has been, that we have not half 
known the immeasurable power of the Word of 
Truth, when backed up and sent forth by a mind 
strong in Faith and Realization. For man wields 
omnipotent power, when he knows it, — when 
Faith gives him the consciousness of it. With 
this great Faith, which is " the Substance of 
things " — Faith that knows — your word becomes 
a decree, " Thou shalt decree a thing, and it 
shall be established unto thee "(Job 22:38). 

The ancients understood the power of words. 
They said, " If you desire agreeable experiences, 
you have only to put a good word into the ether, 
and it will take care of itself, and bring you com- 

133 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

fort by and by with something agreeable coming 
to pass." So in silence they diligently sought the 
right word; which when found they spoke with 
the vehemence of faith. 

Are your circumstances uncomfortable ? Is your 
environment intolerable? That is a good sign. 
Though it is what you have made it, its intoler- 
ableness indicates that you are outgrowing it, and 
are about to change it, which you have power to 
do. When you fully deserve a better environ- 
ment, your changed consciousness will express 
itself in a better one. Learn a lesson of the Dragon- 
fly. Up to a certain time he is content to crawl, 
an uncouth grub, on the bottom of the pond, in 
harmony with his watery environment. But after 
a time he tires of his limitations and intolerable 
bondage, and begins to aspire to higher things 
and a freer environment. In his aspiration he 
climbs a reed; and the sun splits open his en- 
vironing shell, and he leaps forth free — the gor- 
geously attired Dragon-fly, happy in his better 
environment. 

" Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 

What you fully and truly desire, you can have, 
i34 



THE " FIFTH DAY" 

if you know your power, and are not disturbed by 
fear and doubt, which are your greatest foes. No 
matter if the whole world seems against you, and 
the whole trend of human thought seems to oppose 
your law, — your triumph over the intolerable 
conditions will not come by regarding the laws 
of carnal mind, but by disregarding and annulling 
them. Then if you steadfastly adhere to the 
higher law of the Spirit, holding to the Principle 
of Omnipotent Truth, as Jacob wrestled with his 
adversary — in due time it will transpire, that 
" while they are yet speaking I will hear " — while 
steadfastly claiming your heart's desire with the 
persistency of a genuine faith, the transformation 
will come. You bring it to pass. 

" For though wrong grind thee small, 

And all depart ; 
Yet shall thy world grow polar to thee, 

Slowly taught, 
And crystal out a New World 

Like thy thought." 

By training the mind to a habit of fixed and 
steadfast purpose, and with fidelity to principle, 
you have power to bring into manifestation in 
your life the beautiful and desirable things, which 

*35 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

though not yet apparent to the senses are never- 
theless yours already in the invisible omnipres- 
ence, only awaiting your proper mental attitude 
and consciousness to find expression in tangible 
realization. 

" Let the Waters bring forth the moving Creature that hath 
life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firma- 
ment of heaven." 

It will be noted that it is " the waters " that 
bring forth both " the moving creature " and the 
" fowl." This is the language of both the Author- 
ized and the Douay Versions, and it is doubtless 
the correct rendering, since this whole allegory 
refers to thoughts and creations of the mind. For 
Thought creates everything. Indeed, if the Dar- 
winian theory be correct (and it is only a theory), 
that the fowl is a differentiation of the fish, then 
this Genesis statement is all right, even in its lit- 
eral sense, and the revisers had no need to change 
it. It does not say that " the waters " brought 
forth only fishes, but all " moving creatures." In 
our mental world " the waters " of mind create 
everything, as the story graphically shows. 

In studying the correspondences of this allegory 
136 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

we note that the " beast and creeping things " 
represent the passions, sensations, and feelings of 
the flesh ; and " fowl that fly above the earth " are 
things of the mind —thoughts that soar above the 
plane of sense, in the free expanse of the mind, — 
the greatest of which are high aspirations and 
ideals which may correspond to eagles, as they 
have power to fly higher than any other fowl. 
Aspirations and Ideals carry us into the Spiritual 
altitudes where we meet God face to face. 

The value of high ideals is shown in the experi- 
ence of Moses as given in Exodus, 3d chapter, 
which is a picture of the individual in the silence 
of meditation. He was " forty years " in the wil- 
derness tending sheep ; there he " led them to the 
backside of the desert," where he found himself 
" in the mount of God." Here God revealed him- 
self by his great name, " I Am." 

This is the experience of every man who enters 
the path of Regeneration. For if you will engage 
in true meditation in the " desert" of silence, and 
there care for and meditate on your pure, innocent 
Spiritual thoughts ("tend and feed your sheep") ; 
if you will go into the ultimate extent of silence 
("the backside of the desert") with your flocks, 

i37 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

and stay there through a perfected experience, in- 
dicated by the symbology of " forty years," — you 
will suddenly find yourself in a very exalted state 
("the mount of God"). 

The symbology of numbers becomes easy of 
solution when we consider them without regard to 
time or space. Thus in the number " 40 " we have 
a multiple of 10 (4 x 10) ; 4, the number of the 
square, denotes perfection, and 10 denotes All; 
then 4x10 denotes a full and perfected experi- 
ence. Having remained in meditative silence 
through a full and perfected experience (4 X 10), 
the Christ reveals himself to you as your Higher 
Self, whose name is " I Am." In Hebrew this name 
is written, " JHVH" (pronounced, Yahveh or 
Jehovah). Translated it means, "I Am; " which 
is the name of my Inmost Self, — Divinity within 
— the Son of God — Immanuel. And this is 
" The Lord " of my world — the Christ ; who may 
be found within only, — " Lo ! I am with you 
always." 

When Moses received his illumination (" Burn- 
ing Bush ") and the revelation of God as " I Am," 
at once he was clothed with a wonderful power, 
sufficient to defy the power of Egypt, and deliver 

138 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

a vast army of Israelitish slaves from severest 
bondage, and restore them to their " promised 
land." 

Though history, this must be treated as alle- 
gory, in looking for its Spiritual meaning. 

Accordingly from time immemorial our Spiritual 
Thoughts (Children of Israel) have been under the 
domination of Carnal Mind (Egyptian bondage). 
That bondage has been so galling that we " cry to 
God by reason of the taskmasters." 

When through Spiritual perception (Moses) we 
discern God within ("I Am"), we shall awake 
and arise in our Divine might, — conscious of our 
Divinity, — and shake off these shackles, and find 
the freedom of the Sons of God. It is always the 
" Son of God " who makes us free. Only within 
can you find him — and his name is " I Am." 

Our recognition of God must be through our 
Consciousness. For God is Consciousness, or rather, 
God-Consciousness. In order to fully know God 
Ave must become God-Conscious. Therefore the 
" Memorial Name" is " I Am." 

Elijah's power, well-nigh omnipotent, in the an- 
nihilation of the four hundred and fifty prophets of 
Baal and the four hundred prophets of Astarte by 

139 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

one herculean effort, symbolically portrays my own 
power to destroy sensuality from my heart. For 
Baal and Astarte are the Sex Gods, whose prophets 
are legion. 

That which receives your heart's best love and 
devotion is your God. When the heart's love is 
bestowed upon sex-sensuality, you are a worship- 
per of Baal and Astarte, and have departed from 
the true God. 

Such a case is well-nigh hopeless, until Elijah 
arises in the mind. For Elijah i^Elijahu) means, 
My God is I Am. When, therefore, I awake to 
the consciousness that I Am is my God, then I am 
Elijah, and can manifest the power of Elijah to 
righteously determine who has the supreme rights 
and authority, these Gods of sense or the Divine 
ONE within. With this high consciousness at- 
tained by communion, I may demonstrate this 
power, and by one fell swoop clean out these 
Augean impurities, and rid my heart of sensuality 
through the realization that — shall I say it ? — ■ " I- 
Am-God " — " My God is I Am." O if we could 
only get rid of that old primitive, childish concep- 
tion of a personal God (in the human sense), and 
find the Omnipotent One always with us, in- 

140 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

separable from us, we would have little trouble in 
demonstrating holiness and health. Developing 
our omnipotence through knowing God, we be- 
come Elijah, and can thwart the base designs of 
"Jezebel, that wicked woman" — the Carnal Con- 
sciousness. I am always the King of Israel, ruling 
righteously or unrighteously, and always receiving 
the consequences. 

In saying that God is within, we are not saying 
that the whole of God is within ; but that our con- 
ception is there — in consciousness. For back of 
my own "I Am "-Consciousness (the Son) is 
the great, Eternal, Universal " I Am-that-I Am "- 
Consciousness (the Father). 

This conception of God within gives us a higher 
conception of our bodies, which thus become God's 
Holy Temple. 

"Jesus spake of the Temple of his body." 

Thus your body is God's body. Can you defile 
it with impure thoughts? Your hand is God's 
hand. Will you say God's hand is infirm? Your 
eyes are God's eyes. Will you say God's eyes are 
dim? Your ears are God's ears. Will you say 
God cannot hear? 

"He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? " 
141 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

" He that formed the eye, shall he not see? " 

Who formed the ear? Who formed the eye? 
Who but the Divine " I Am" within? Who hears? 
Who sees? Who but the same perfect One? 
Who can obstruct his hearing or seeing? — " Shall 
he not see ? " — " Shall he not hear ? " 

Then the way to overcome imperfections of 
vision or of hearing is to recognize your own 
Divinity. Indeed, the way to overcome every 
imperfection is to recognize who you are. 

Carefully examining the Name of God given in 
Ex. 3 : 14, we find two Hebrew words used, both 
parts of the verb Hajah (to be), viz.: For the 
Name, " I Am " ( Yahveh — Jehovah), the present 
tense is used, Jhvh — I Am. For the Name, " I 
Am-that-I Am," the future, Ahjh, is used, thus : 
" Ahjh ashr Ahjh!' The former is a simple 
statement of Existence, or Being — - " I Am." The 
latter means more on account of its future aspect 
— " I Am He who is and is to be," — not like 
the former, limited to the present, but reaching to 
the Infinite Future — I Am He who is, the Com- 
ing, Unfolding, Manifesting One — ■ Eternal Being. 

The one represents the Individual Conscious- 



142 



THE "FIFTH DAY" 

ness ; the other the Universal Consciousness. The 
one is the Son ; the other the Father. 

The " I Am " is my own — " My God ;" the " I 
Am-that-I Am " is the Universal Father. All " I 
Am " 's exist in and by reason of the " I Am-that- 
I Am." Only through the Son (" I Am") can I 
know the Father ("I Am-that-I Am"). There- 
fore, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father 
also." The way to the Father is always through 
the Son, the Mediator. The great lesson to be 
learned by the " Burning Bush " and " Elijah " al- 
legories is man's actual omnipotence, when think- 
ing from the consciousness of " I Am." 



*43 



VI 

THE "SIXTH DAY": — THE MAN THAT GOD 
MADE 

" And Elohim said, « Let us make Man in Our Image, 
after Our Likeness ; and let them have dominion over the 
Fish of the sea, and over the Fowl of the air, and over the 
Cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every Creeping Thing 
that creepeth upon the Earth.' And God made Man in his 
own Image : in the Image of God created he him : Male and 
Female created he them." — Gen. 1:26, 27. 

This Chapter treats of the Crowning Work of 
Creation, — God imaging himself in Man. In 
fact, everything in the universe images God in a 
certain degree ; but Man is the highest expression, 
His Crowning Work. In the two first Chapters 
Moses gives us a double symbolic picture to repre- 
sent Man in his dual nature. 

Apparently there are two separate accounts 
alternating throughout the first eleven Chapters, 
the one representing the Spiritual or Real Man, 
and the other the Natural or Unreal. The two 

144 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

are as unlike as the two natures are ; yet they be- 
long together, as the two natures do, and are quite 
inseparable. But we may separate them, for the 
purpose of contemplating either, as we may con- 
template either nature separately. 

The key by which the two may be distinguished 
and separated is the word employed as the Name 
of God. In the First Account it is Alhim 
(Elohim) — "God;" in the Second it is Jhvh 
{Jehovah) — " Lord," or Jhvh Alhim {Jehovah 
Elohini) — " Lord God." Hence students call the 
former the " Elohistic " account, and the latter the 
" Jehovistic" 

These are sometimes printed in different type 
on the same page, also in parallel columns, so that 
they may be readily separated. 

The two are very unlike ; so that if we confine 
ourselves to one account by reading heavy-faced 
type only, we shall get an entirely different con- 
ception of God's Creation, than if we read only 
the light-faced type, and vice versa. 

The " Elohistic" account is an Ideal Picture to 
represent a purely Spiritual Creation, — its Man 
a Son of God, whose Likeness he bears, and whose 
Image he is. No materiality, earthiness, inhar- 

H5 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

mony, sin, curse, or death are mentioned or even 
hinted at to mar this Ideal Picture. It is the per- 
fect handiwork of the Perfect Creator, whose ap- 
proval it receives. 

The " Jehovistic " account is a picture of the 
Human conception of Man and Creation ; which 
also involves the Human conception of God, — 
containing all the blemishes, crudities, inharmonies, 
sin, and death. 

The exact origin of these two accounts is un- 
known ; but that they antedate Moses is universally 
conceded. No doubt they are a part of the her- 
itage of the Hebrews from their ancient Aryan 
ancestors, — the former coming from Chaldea 
through tradition, and the latter from Egypt, — 
the one being the purer presentation of the orig- 
inal Aryan story, the other the same story colored 
and corrupted by the peculiarity of Egyptian 
thought. 

The one represents Man as seen from the stand- 
point of Divinity; the other as seen from the 
standpoint of Humanity. The two allegoric stories 
picture to us the Divine Idea and the Human Idea 
in contrast and juxtaposition. 

The Elohistic account occupies the first Chapter 
146 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

and four verses of the second ; where the Jehovistic 
begins, telling the same story in formula very 
materialistic, continuing to the fifth Chapter. 

Here the Elohistic again resumes the narrative 
through the fifth Chapter. These alternations 
continue through eleven Chapters; after which 
they become so blended that they cannot be dis- 
tinguished only as occasionally a great Elohistic 
Prophet arises to arouse in the minds of the Jeho- 
vistic people the higher standards which they have 
forsaken. 

As Moses did not discard either account we 
will try to learn the lesson both have for us. 

Allegory, metaphor, parable, etc., are material- 
istic expressions given to picture to the receptive 
mind Spiritual Ideas. For this is the only way 
Spiritual Ideas can be expressed. Intellect can 
perceive the shadow of Spiritual Truth by means 
of such cabalistic formulae ; and then with a due 
receptivity may be led into the higher Spiritual 
Understanding. 

Looking, then, behind the letter of the figure, 
we may see a Spiritual World of transcendent 
beauty and Divine perfection - — everything in it 
being Spiritual, including Man, its king and lord 

i47 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

in full dominion. This is the teaching of the Elo- 
histic story. 

For the Spiritual is God's Real Creation; and 
Spiritual Man is the Real Man. In the Ideal 
World there is no sin; and there is no sinning in 
the Ideal Man. Therefore sin does not appear in 
the Elohistic story. It only appears in the Jeho- 
vistic, which is a perversion, corruption, or coun- 
terfeit of the Divine Idea, as shown by the Elo- 
histic. The descent of the pure Soul from the 
Elohim into Matter for the purpose of developing 
a strong individuality and personality through 
experience, which necessarily involves mistakes 
(which themselves have lessons for us), seems to 
be what is pictured by the Jehovistic story. For 
the pure Soul from the Elohim has no character 
or worth of its own until it has worked it out by 
experience. These mistakes involve all that is 
called sin, and the Egyptian bondage, its necessary 
consequence — from which we are now seeking 
deliverance through the experiences of regenera- 
tion, that we may be restored in consciousness to 
our pristine estate. 

The Jehovistic story is unregenerate man's mis- 
conception of himself, as seen from the standpoint 

i 4 8 



THE " SIXTH DAY" 

of the Carnal (Egypt) nature. This " dust-of-the- 
ground " man, this " good-and-evil " man, this 
sinning, dying man is not the Divine Idea or God's 
True Creation. It is rather the human misconcep- 
tion of that Idea. Wherefore these two concepts 
are as far apart as Truth and Falsity, Spirit and 
Matter, Reality and Unreality, with both of which 
man has to do. They represent the Divine and 
Human Ideas, each brought into expression by 
the same " Law of the Lord." 

It appears that the writer of the Pentateuch has 
given us a double allegoric picture of man to show 
the apparent duality of his nature, — wherein 
appears the upright perfection of the Higher Self, 
and the frail, material, sinning "worm of dust" of 
the Lower Self — the man of misconceptions. 
The higher conception appeals to his higher 
nature, and the lower conception to his lower 
nature, because of the duality in consciousness 
which this dual story presents. 

There is a perpetual paradox in our reasoning 
concerning man growing out of this duality in 
consciousness. 

Of this duality in consciousness Emerson says : 
" Underneath the inharmonious and trivial partic- 

i 49 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ulars there lies a musical perfection, the Ideal 
journeying always with us — the heaven without 
rent or seam." 

Having the right and power of free choice, our 
reason may lead us to follow our Ideal and to 
keep the Higher Self constantly in view ; so that 
we may advance toward Divinity by a conscious 
evolution — - or we may choose to follow our mis- 
conceptions, attaching ourselves to the earth 
where we hear the Law declaring : " Dust thou 
art, and unto dust thou shalt return." 

All the troubles of earth arise from this miscon- 
ception of things. As philosophers and scientific 
thinkers, we are seeking to form the true concept 
of ourselves, in the hope that by adhering to 
eternal principles of Truth we may find deliverance 
from the distresses which misconception has in- 
volved us in, and attain to the Divine Conscious- 
ness; where, consciously Sons of God, we shall 
be untouched and uncontaminated by sin, corrup- 
tion, or death. 

The true Conception is Man as God sees him 
from the standpoint of Truth. The false Concep- 
tion is man as seen from the standpoint of the 
senses. 

150 



THE " SIXTH DAY" 

It is the prerogative of Truth to lift man out of 
the slums, into which misconception has cast him, 
with all the concomitants of sin, sickness, acci- 
dents, and death ; and through the transforming 
power of Spiritual Ideals lead him into an illumi- 
nated consciousness where only harmony and 
health are found. 

When we contemplate the great book of Nature 
we are impressed with the idea of a wonderful 
order and plan. And yet the word " plan " 
seems hardly the proper word for Infinite Wisdom. 
We speak of God's " plan" or God's " scheme of 
salvation," as though the Infinite had to study 
and "scheme " and " plan" to accomplish a diffi- 
cult task. Omniscience having to " study " and 
" scheme " and "plan"! Only the finite needs 
to " plan," because not perfected in Wisdom. 
Therefore what is called " God's plan of Salva- 
tion " is simply men's plan, — their idea of God's 
way of doing things. We have so many conflict- 
ing plans, all called God's ! Omniscience is 
universal law. Does Law plan? Law is the har- 
monious working of Omniscience. It is not a 
thing made and adjusted to the universe. It is 
rather God in his universe living it. It is not a 

151 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

plan : It is God, manifesting himself as Wisdom, 
Love, and Truth, in harmonious activity. 

When we read in Gen. 2:7: " And the Lord 
God formed man out of the dust of the ground," 
it is equivalent to saying, The " Law of the 
Lord " brought into material expression man's 
material Idea of himself. 

The Elohistic story shows the harmonious ex- 
pression of the perfect Idea; and the Jehovistic 
the inharmonious expression of the perverted 
Idea, by the faithful operation of the same right- 
eous " Law of the Lord/' It is the perfect Law 
of expression we are dealing with, which is just 
as faithful to bring into expression every Idea, 
whether true or false. 

If your idea is perfect and true — the True 
Conception — its expression will be as perfect 
and true as is the Idea. But if your idea is im- 
perfect and false — a misconception — the expres- 
sion must be as far from perfection as is the Idea. 

By the same impartial Law the " Good Tree 
brings forth Good fruit, and the Evil Tree Evil 
fruit." God is powerless to prevent the " evil 
fruit " on the " evil tree." For he is Principle 
and Law. 

152 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

Thus the " Law of the Lord " with exactness of 
operation and impartiality forms man's material 
Body out of his material conceptions (" dust of 
the ground "). Not that God did this once, ages 
ago, but that it is constantly being done every- 
where. It is the Law. 

But after all, whether we call this a Spiritual or 
material world ; whether we call man a Spiritual 
or material Being, depends on our conception of 
things. For from the Elohistic standpoint what 
Carnal mind calls the material world is really the 
Spiritual world in visible expression, — misnamed 
material, through human misconception. 

Human misconception is forever mistaking the 
" appearance " for the Reality. But Realities are 
always Spiritual and eternal; " appearances " are 
transitory and temporal. 

By reason of his Divine origin Man is, according 
to this Elohistic story, in his intrinsic substance, 
a perfect Spiritual Being; and his great problem 
is, through the recognition of the Spiritual Self to 
bring into outward expression all the qualities of 
the Heavenly Man, — to bring into concrete ex- 
pression what is potentially true in his Inmost 
Being, until the two are one. 

153 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

The " problem of Life " is not fully solved 
until Regeneration is finished. And this is the 
demonstration of yourself to yourself — your 
Higher Self to your Lower Self; whereby the 
lower becomes " transformed into the image of 
the heavenly." 

In the Sixth Day of Creation God completed 
the revelation of himself to himself in the produc- 
tion of his perfect Son — his imaged representa- 
tive. When, after all the Aeons of evolutionary 
unfoldment, the earth became ready for man, the 
crowning work and highest expression of God, — 
Man appeared. Then was God able to behold 
himself, as in a mirror, in his Creation. His per- 
fect Image appeared ; which he saw, and pro- 
nounced, " Very Good." 

Everything in the universe is contained in man; 
therefore, when the Creation was " finished," Man 
had to appear, that the Father might behold 
himself in the Son. 

Through correspondence I see, that I am creat- 
ing my world. This Genesis story is the story of 
my own unfoldment. My world is at first " without 
form and void ; " and would ever remain so, but 
for " the Spirit of God moving upon the face of 

i54 



THE " SIXTH DAY" 

the waters." Through this Cosmic process my 
unfoldment continues, until at last I behold 
myself in my perfected Consciousness, — the 
Heavenly Man, the True Creation of God. 

The end and object of my Regeneration is to 
bring into consciousness the full glory of my Son- 
of-God Self; that I may see in this perfect mirror 
f hat which exactly meets my approval, and which 
I therefore pronounce, " Very Good." 

This is a demonstration of the highest Truth of 
Being. For if your highest Ideal is the Real, — 
that you are a Son of God, with every Divine 
attribute and perfection, — - then you ought to be 
able to realize — make real to consciousness — 
that Ideal; and so Be CONSCIOUSLY THE God- 
Ideal. What at first is a distant Ideal, becomes 
in time consciously Real — Real-ized. 

This is a demonstration to yourself — not to an- 
other. Another has no part in it. All experiences 
in evolution are strictly your own. 

The Gethsemanes and Crucifixions are great 
experiences for your own unfoldment. Peter, 
James, and John slept while the Master wrestled 
in Gethsemane. 

Thus in the Microcosm the forming of the Son 
i55 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

of God in you is the Crowning work of your crea- 
tion, and that toward which all previous efforts 
have pointed. 

In the correspondence of the natural with the 
Spiritual we see the beauty and profundity of 
Divine Wisdom, the marvellous Wisdom of the 
Divine Order. Besides, it enables us to recognize 
the Divine Self, which is always in touch with 
God; so that we may "ask," knowing that we 
" shall receive " freely of the Wisdom, Truth, 
Strength, and Virtue of God. The whole fountain 
of Wisdom is continually offering itself; God is 
continually bestowing himself. Every Good thing 
we can ask for, or think of, is eternally given. 
Man has but to receive. 

The fact of the matter is, Infinite Goodness has 
expressed itself in man, making him Good ; In- 
finite Wisdom has made him Wise ; Infinite Life 
has made him Living; Infinite Love has made him 
Loving; and who shall limit the Infinite bestow- 
ing? God-like-ness is the meaning of " In-our- 
Image-after-our- Likeness." 

The Man, whom Elohim, the Father, made and 
pronounced " Very Good," is the Man of God- 
like-ness ; who eternally abides in the bosom of the 

156 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

Father. If God once pronounced Man " Good," 
the Unchanging One must forever see him Good. 
The Uncorruptible Father forever sees the Son 
uncorruptible. 

It is because the Spiritual Man is the Real, the 
Man of unchanging perfection, that makes him 
instinctively rebel at bondage, sickness, and death ; 
because these things are not his, and never be- 
longed to this man of Divine lineage. They have 
been foisted upon him by the misconceptions of 
the race, until he groans by reason of the cruel 
bondage. This instinctive rebellion at bondage 
and oppression is the Voice of the Divine Self 
asserting himself. 

Shall we constantly keep the false man in view, 
and be reconciled to Pharaoh's oppression? Shall 
we " take the Name of God in vain " by saying, 
"It is God's Will," or by calling Carnal Mind's 
verdict, God's decree? It is Pharaoh's decree, not 
Elohim's. Let him exercise his authority upon 
Egyptians ; but we are not Egyptians, that we 
should submit to this cruel king, " Mortal Mind." 
We are of a Diviner race — Sons of God — Children 
of Israel — a Spiritual race. 

Yet we have, like the historical Israel, been sold 
i57 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

into slavery, — - as Paul says, " sold under sin," — 
we have sold ourselves. " Ye have sold yourselves 
for naught; but ye shall be redeemed without 
money and without price." (Is. 52: 3). But out 
of this carnal-mind bondage our cry for deliver- 
ance is heard in the innermost of the soul, where 
God is still speaking and still hears. 

Through the long centuries, in ignorance of his 
Divine estate, and under the illusions of the mortal 
consciousness, man has been blindly groping his 
way, seeking in materiality for what he is conscious 
of having lost, — Perpetual Youth. He is con- 
stantly seeking in objectivity for what cannot be 
found there. The " elixir of life " and the " foun- 
tain of perpetual youth " men are ever seeking 
and never finding in the objective world. In every 
century some Ponce de Leon or Pasteur appears in 
this vain search. Yet there is a true " elixir of life " 
and a true " fountain of perpetual youth" all suffi- 
cient; otherwise men would not be searching for it. 

Instinctively man knows that perfect life, health, 
and freedom belong to him. Therefore he believes 
in remedies instinctively for the recovery of his 
lost estate ; and he flies to matter for what does 
not exist there. He is thirsting for the " Water 

158 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

of Life; " but seeks it in " mineral springs," or in 
the concoctions of the apothecary. This Living 
Fountain is not to be found in matter; for it is 
matter (the material consciousness) that has de- 
frauded him of the fulness of the Consciousness 
of Life. He has sought wrongly, because he has 
sought objectively, — without, for what can be 
found only within. If only man would step and 
listen, — learn to hear and obey the Inner Voice 
of Wisdom, he would soon find the " elixir of life," 
and be able to drink of its perennial fountain. 
Christ is that all-sufficient Fountain. " The Water 
that I will give him shall be in him a well of Water 
springing up into Everlasting Life." Finding the 
Christ within, you drink of the Fountain of perpet- 
ual youth. But man — " fool man" — has lost 
the Spiritual Consciousness, having buried it be- 
neath the rubbish of materiality. As Young says : 

11 Yet man, fool man ! here buries all his thoughts ; 
Inters Celestial hopes without one sigh ; 
Prisoner of earth, and pent beneath the moon, 
Here centres all his wishes ; winged by heaven 
To fly at Infinite, and reach it there, — 
Where seraphs gather Immortality on Life's fair Tree, 
Fast by the Throne of God. 1 ' 
*59 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

To have the realization of your Divine estate, — 
to know that it is even now your very own, will 
bring you better health and a higher conscious- 
ness. For that realization will be a Higher Con- 
sciousness. The glimpses you receive of your 
Higher Self are foreshadowings of the Higher 
Consciousness, soon to be revealed. John was in 
the Spiritual Consciousness, we may infer from 
his statements of realization. " Beloved, Now are 
we the Sons of God ; and it is not yet manifest 
what we shall be ; but we know that when He 
shall be manifested, we shall be like Him ; for we 
shall see Him as He is." 

According to this man in the Cosmic Con- 
sciousness, even " Now we are Sons of God," 
— though we may not fully realize all this means, 
nor manifest (because not realizing) all it implies. 
But the possibilities of " what we shall be" can 
hardly be imagined; because of the limitations 
of our faith. " But we know, that when He shall 
be manifested (to consciousness) we shall be like 
Him." That is : When we are in the Spiritual 
Consciousness we shall comprehend and under- 
stand all things Spiritual, and manifest accord- 
ingly. 

1 60 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

The high standard is within; the perfect pat- 
tern is there. 

It is the Divine Self — the Immaculate Christ. 
All longing for higher things, all soul hunger, 
is the True Self seeking recognition and outward 
expression. 

If man were the " worm of the dust " they have 
called him ; if he were " totally depraved," as his 
well-intentioned calumniators have declared, he 
could have no aspiration for higher things ; the 
Spiritual would forever remain meaningless to 
him. There could be no evolution toward Di- 
vinity, unless Divinity had been first //evolved. 
But Divinity always within is constantly seeking 
recognition and outward expression. No man 
ever attained a high consciousness by a constant 
recognition of his low estate of sinfulness ; nor by 
putting off the day in thinking he will sometime 
become holy, can he arrive at conscious Holiness. 
The consciousness of Holiness, and its expression 
as wholeness can come only through the recog- 
nition of it as a present reality. For you are not 
sometime to become a Son of God; — you are 
Now a Son of God, as perfect as Christ. 

Your Son-ship is not a thing to be unfolded, 
161 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

but a thing to be recognized. The only trouble 
in the matter is, you are not conscious of what 
you are, What is to be unfolded is not your 
Divinity, but your consciousness of it. Divinity 
was always there, but the consciousness of it is to 
be gained. The Divine Consciousness is the great 
object of all unfoldment. 

Jesus is called Jesus Christ, because he ever 
lived and spoke from the Christ-Centre of con- 
sciousness. Divinity within being constantly rec- 
ognized, was constantly gaining a fuller expression ; 
until men, recognizing the expression, called him 
Jesus Christ. 

You will never be able to express the higher 
powers of the soul until you look beyond the 
human Self you are so familiar with, and become 
better acquainted with the Higher Self, — until 
you recognize this Heavenly Man already there 
in his full Divinity. 

Unfoldment is upward, from the lower to the 
higher. Therefore Paul said, " The First Man 
(recognized) is of the earth earthy: the Second 
Man (recognized) is the Lord from heaven." 
This is the Divine order for every man's pro- 
gression. 

162 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

The u First Man" has been long in manifesta- 
tion through constant recognition. Now our 
problem is, through a proper Spiritual recogni- 
tion, to bring into manifestation the Heavenly 
Man — the " Second Man" — in all his perfec- 
tion. This is a matter of demonstration. 

Every problem requires demonstration. 

You have lived so long in the Human Con- 
sciousness, that the True Self is unknown to you, 
until in the silence you discover him. 

This is your Ideal, very beautiful, but at first 
far away. But by persistently dwelling on this 
Ideal you bring it near, until you make it real to 
consciousness. You realize your ideal. 

As we have said, the man that God made is the 
Spiritual Man, only whom Elohim, his maker, 
knows, and pronounces, " Very Good." 

"And God saw everything he had made, and 
behold ! it was very Good." 

Only the perfect meets the Divine recognition 
and approval ; only the perfect has he made. 

Not only is this God's verdict concerning His 
Creation, but it is also the verdict of the true Ego, 
the Son of God, who sees as God sees, from the 
standpoint of perfection. 

163 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

But the Human Ego, seeing from the standpoint 
of the senses, reverses for himself in consciousness 
the correct verdict of the Spiritual Ego, and re- 
ceives himself the self-inflicted penalty, the con- 
sequence of his perverted conception of Truth. 
For in reality Truth can never be perverted or 
shaded a hair from its high standard of perfection. 
The only thing that is changeable is our concep- 
tion of it. The effect of that false conception is 
what we call evil. 

When we realize that in the realm of Being and 
Reality there is nothing but God and his Creation 
(which is his expression), then there is but a 
single step to the more comprehensive statement, 
" There is nothing but God." Thus Mrs. Wilcox 
puts it : 

11 God and I in space alone, and nobody else in view : 
And where are the people, O Lord, I said, 
The earth below and the sky o'erhead ; 
And the dead whom once I knew? 

" That were a dream, God smiled and said, 
A dream that seemed to be true. 
There are no people, living or dead, 
No earth below or sky o'erhead : 
There is only Myself and You. 
164 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

" Why do I feel no fear, I asked, 

Meeting you here this way ; 
For I have sinned, I know full well ; 
And is there Heaven, and is there Hell, 

And is this the Judgment Day? 

" Nay, those were but dreams, the great God said, 

Dreams that seemed to be. 
There is no such thing as Fear of Sin ; 
There is no You ; you never have been ; 

There is nothing at all but Me." 

Making use of Emma Curtis Hopkins' formula, 
with slight modification, we may say: 

" The Divine One looking outward, as it were, 
forever beholds himself. There is nothing else for 
him to behold. He sees himself everywhere re- 
flected in the perfect mirror of nature. He sees 
himself in everything he beholds. The Divine 
One is all there is either to be or to be seen. So 
every way the Divine One turns he sees himself. 
He gives his own quality and characteristics to 
everything he sees. He is continually environed 
by himself. Conscious only of Goodness, he pro- 
nounces everything he sees, ' Very Good.' " 

In like manner the True Ego, looking outward, 
165 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

only beholds himself. He sees himself every way 
he turns. Consciously Good himself, he sees only 
Goodness every way he looks. He gives his own 
quality and characteristics to everything he sees. 
With no " mote " in his eye he sees only perfec- 
tion every way he turns. He sees himself in a 
mirror, and is reflected, himself to himself, on 
every hand. He is continually environed by him- 
self. This is the Man that God made — his per- 
fect expression ; who sees as through the eyes of 
Divinity, and like God pronounces everything he 
sees, " Very Good." 

Then we find that the False Self, the Human 
Ego, being but the perverted concept of the True 
Self or Ego, sees only himself every way he turns. 
He gives his own quality and characteristics to 
everything he beholds. He sees everybody and 
everything after his own pattern and pronounces 
judgment accordingly. With a beam in his eye 
he sees motes in his brother's eye continually. 
He sees everybody through his own thought- 
spectacles, which color everything he sees. Con- 
scious of sin himself, he sees the sinner every- 
where he looks. He is continually environed by 
himself. 

166 



THE "SIXTH DAY" 

Like the Divine One the True Ego sees only 
what he approves and loves because of his own 
conscious Goodness. But the Human Ego sees 
much that displeases him because he is in a false 
consciousness — the consciousness of Good-and- 
Evil. Yet he has one sure remedy for his offend- 
ing world : When he has redeemed himself he 
will find his world redeemed ; since the world he 
sees is his own reflection. 



167 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



REGENERATION 



PART II 

FOLLOWING THE "SIX DAYS" OF THE 
CHRIST SYMBOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION 

TO 

PART II 

THE CHRIST SYMBOLOGY 

THROUGHOUT the Scriptures there is One Great 
Theme running, — One Great Burden which its 
symbology bears, — One Great Transformation, 
which its allegories picture, and its histories both 
conceal and reveal. It is the Great Theme of the 
Prophets and Mystics of the Ages in all Religious 
Systems, — the greatest that can engage the hu- 
man mind ; because it contains the secret arcana, 
and reveals the way for man's unfoldment into his 
Divine estate in consciousness. That One Great 
theme is Regeneration. 

That is the Great Evolution revealed in the 
story of Creation, as we have seen. That is the 
Evolution pictured by the deliverance of the 
" Children of Israel" from the bondage of Egypt, 

171 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

and their final arrival, after the purifying " Wilder- 
ness " experiences, into their "Promised Land." 
That is the Evolution pictured in the dark and 
mystical Book of " Job," as we shall see, when 
once we have learned to look beyond persons and 
things, and see our own experiences. 

In these and many other cases human unfold- 
ment through experience is what is represented 
under the symbology of history and allegory. 

It is soul unfoldment, — Spiritual Evolution, — 
the growth and passage from the material or 
Adam-Consciousness to the Spiritual or Christ- 
Consciousness. In either of these mystical alle- 
gories the ultimate goal is the same. The allegory 
of Creation ultimates in the " Sabbath of Rest," 
— the Attainment realized — Regeneration accom- 
plished, where all struggle ends, all labor ceases. 
The allegory of the " Children of Israel " ultimates 
in their safe arrival in their Ideal Home. The 
great epic of Job ultimates in the soul's perfect 
restoration through a true understanding of God, 
whereby we become transformed in soul, body, and 
estate, and receive full satisfaction in the elder 
brother's double portion. 

We now turn to the New Testament to contem- 
172 






THE CHRIST SYMBOLOGY 

plate the greatest symbology written in any age. 
Every character of the sacred page signifies far 
more than the mere historical life of that char- 
acter. 

The greatest character of history is Jesus of 
Nazareth. As an individual his life was an ideal 
one, — or rather an Ideal carried into practice — 
realized. That man may have an ideal, which 
he may pursue, until he realizes his ideal, was 
demonstrated by him; that the way to unfold the 
highest potentialities of one's Being, the way to 
bring out Divine qualities and characteristics is 
by pursuing one's Ideal, until it is realized ; — 
thus demonstrating that the Ideal is the Real. 
The Ideal is the perfect Spiritual " Pattern shown 
in the mount," which we should seek to make our 
own in practical experience. Living the Ideal 
Life is the way to realize our Ideal. 

Jesus was the Man of prophecy, the One Man 
foreseen and pointed to by all the Prophets and 
Seers of old, — the Pattern-Man, the Ideal-Man, 
whom they saw afar off, and who in the fulness 
of time was expressed in visible form, — the Ideal 
realized; — and he is still the Ideal Man — our 
Ideal, our Pattern ; whose life is the Ideal " Way" 

i73 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

for the unfoldment of the highest potentialities of 
one's Being, for the demonstration of Divinity in 
Consciousness. 

Therefore the meaning of his life is more than 
that of an historical personage. All the histories 
of the Word are more to us than histories. There 
is always an allegorical application of such histo- 
ries to human life : so that that history is not a 
thing of the dead past, but a living thing of the 
living present, a reality in the individual conscious- 
ness. Of all the allegoric (historical) characters 
of sacred history the greatest and crown jewel of 
them all is Jesus Christ. That he lived and walked 
the earth there is abundant evidence; though the 
accuracy of the allegoric application of his life to 
human experience in the process of regeneration 
is so marked as to lead some to think that he was 
not an historical personage ; but that the writers 
of the Gospels — whoever they were — wrote under 
Divine inspiration, using the form of history to 
represent the true course of Ideal Way for the 
unfoldment of the Christ in Consciousness; that 
"Jesus " represents the typical Man going through 
all the experiences of that unfoldment ; that those 
allegoric experiences, as in a human objective life, 

r 74 



THE CHRIST SYMBOLOGY 

represent the esoteric experiences of every man in 
the Way of regeneration, wherein he may be said 
to pass from the estate of the animal-human to 
that of the Divine-human, in consciousness. In 
such a view the "Christ" is the true Ego — the 
Son of God, which the " Jesus " — the human — is 
seeking to manifest in consciousness, that he may 
be conscious of his Divine estate or Christ-hood. 
This reveals " The Way" to the Christ life in its 
fulness. 

All this may be strictly true without denying the 
historic Christ. But admitting its historicity and 
the allegory within it, that history at once assumes 
a wonderful importance, — there is a Divine plan 
in it; God is in it, working along with man in 
both the objective and subjective experiences ; 
which reveals a sacred value to both factors of a 
correspondence. And this must be true of all 
Bible histories and prophecies. God is in every 
stage of human evolution from the lowest to the 
highest. 

Every great unfoldment proceeds according to 
the Cosmic order, having " six periods," " six 
steps," or " six days " in its evolution ; the seventh 
representing finished work — the Ideal realized. 

i75 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Hence in the Spiritual interpretation of Scripture 
the number seven always means completion — 
the attainment. For there is a Spiritual sense of 
numbers, as well as histories and allegories, to 
be understood. This being true, we may expect 
to find in the story of the life of Jesus something 
to show that its mystical writers followed the 
mystic order, — that this mystical life had its " six 
days " also. 

The story of the " Transfiguration," in Mat. 17 
and Mark 9, is a unique symbolic vision, pregnant 
with Spiritual meaning, like the visions of John in 
the Apocalypse ; and the same John was one of 
the three who had this vision, in which the Christ 
is the centra] figure, — fulfilling the law (Moses) 
and the Prophets (Elijah), — as the Christ is the 
essential Principle of both the Law and the Proph- 
ets, — in both factors of the correspondence. 

Every item and incident of this vision has a 
mystical meaning. 

"After six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, 
his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain 
apart, and was transfigured before them : and his face did 
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light " 
(Mat. 17 : 1, 2). 

176 



THE CHRIST SYMBOLOGY 

The first thing that catches our attention is the 
" Six Days " in the beginning of the narrative. 
The allegoric nature of the record of the life of 
Jesus is one of the chief reasons Bible students 
find so much difficulty in determining the chrono- 
logical order of events in that mystical life. If we 
spend our time hunting for the chronology, we 
shall miss the great lesson of the life. In fact, we 
must eliminate Time and Space from the account, 
so that the experience may be Now and Here, — 
" nigh thee and in thy heart." 

With Time eliminated the chronology ceases to 
have any value. The Spiritual is Now and HERE 
always. 

The " Six Days" of the Mosaic symbology are 
the " six periods" or " Six degrees of Initia- 
tion," for the Neophyte, before he arrives at the 
perfect state of Illumination, symbolized by the 
" Sabbath." 

What that symbo.logy pictures to the mind is 
more graphically pictured by the higher symbol- 
ogy of the greater allegory of the life of the 
greatest man of history ; which has the same " Six 
Days " to represent the same " Six Steps " or " Six 
Degrees of Initiation " in the unfoldment of the 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Christ in Consciousness ; " until we arrive at the 
fulness of Christ." 

This is the interpretation of the first point in the 
great allegoric vision of the Transfiguration. For 
our present purpose this point is all we need to 
mention; though it might be profitable to trace 
the symbolism of the whole vision. 

In the six Chapters following we shall endeavor 
to show the " Six Steps " in the Christ-Way of 
Regeneration, — " I Am the Way." 

We hope to be able to make that wonderful 
Way so clear in its every " step," that others may 
be able to follow " The Way," finding the Master's 
" Steps," and walking in them. 

Said Victor Hugo : " Religion is a translation 
of God proportioned to the amount of soul that is 
within you." Therefore the unfoldment of Religion 
in the Soul works the unfoldment of the soul by a 
larger " translation of God " to the human Con- 
sciousness. 



178 






VII 

THE FIRST STEP : — THE IMMACULATE 
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH 

" Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God." — John 3:3. 

THE great problem for every man's solution is 
"the Problem of Life ; " the great Object of search 
is Satisfaction ; the great Attainment to make is 
the Divine Consciousness, — which is the " Chief 
End of Man." Happy is he who wisely enters 
early upon this solution, who early begins this 
search, and studiously strives to gain this high 
attainment, — an attainment which in the Eternity 
of Eternities each one will sometime work out for 
himself. It is every one's own problem, which 
another cannot solve for him. 

" Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling" (Phil. 2: 12). 

It shall be the burden of the Six Chapters fol- 
lowing to make clear the Christ-Way for the 

179 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

solution of the Great Life Problem, for the finding 
of Satisfaction, and the attainment of the Divine 
Consciousness, according to the greater Light of 
the New Testament as it is revealed by the won- 
derful symbolic life of Jesus of Nazareth, by Six 
well-defined Steps, shown in that striking symbolic 
picture, called " The Transfiguration" (Mat. 17) ; 
whose " Six Days " are the Six Steps in the evo- 
lution of the Christ in Consciousness. For Jesus 
is the Representative Man of the Ages, the Great 
Type-Man for all time, our Living Parable and 
Allegory of Life, — our Way to the highest Con- 
sciousness — "I Am the Way." 

The meaning and purpose of that Great Mysti- 
cal Life is, to show by the demonstration of expe- 
rience the Way for the unfoldment of the CHRIST 
in Consciousness. 

Therefore " The Way " of his earthly life stands 
to us as an objective picture to indicate our Spir- 
itual Way to that Great Unfoldment, the highest 
experience for men, — Spiritual Illumination,-— 
a transformed Consciousness, — the Resurrected 
Life, — the Christ-Consciousness; — and by the 
necessity of natural law, a transformed body. 

This "Way" is the evolutionary process, called 
180 



THE FIRST STEP 

Regeneration, — available to every man who will 
seek it. 

But what is Regeneration? It is the Conception, 
Birth, and Unfoldment of the Divine IDEA or 
CHRIST-Principle in the Consciousness of Man, 
until it has wrought the purification and transfor- 
mation of the whole man, soul and bod) r , making 
him in consciousness a " New Creation in Christ 
Jesus." 

In the Six First Chapters we followed the same 
Six Steps to the same end under the symbolism 
of the Story of Creation, which had its culmina- 
tion or completion in the " Seventh Day," " the 
Sabbath of the Lord thy God," representing an 
Illuminated Consciousness in Realization, or per- 
fect Salvation in the attainment of the Spiritual 
Consciousness. 

Every man is seeking Satisfaction, whether he 
follow the quest of wealth, honor, or fame ; whether 
he plunge into dissipation, sensuality, or crime. 
He is always after the sweet boon of Satisfaction. 

Though in numerous ways men seek and never 
find it, still there is one sure way to satisfaction, — 
the Christ-Way, — u I Am the Way." 

Only Christ brings to the heart perfect satisfac- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

tion. Christ is the all-satisfying Good all men are 
seeking, though they know it not. 

Christ is the Way to the Regenerated Life, — 
" the only way (Name) given under heaven 
among men, whereby we must be saved." There 
is no other way. " He that entereth not by the 
Door into the Sheepfold, but climbeth up some 
other Way, the same is a thief and a robber." 
"I Am the Door;" " I Am the Way." Thus the 
Course, the Path, the " Door," the " Way " to 
Regenerated or Divine Manhood is the Christ- 
Way. " I Am the Way;' 

" And God spake unto Moses and said / Am the 
I Am (the Lord) : I appeared unto Abraham, unto 
Isaac and unto Jacob by the name, God Almighty ; 
but by my name, / Am (Jehovah) > was I not 
known unto them," The name, "God Almighty," 
is a purely intellectual conception of God, — ■ a 
mere theoretical or theological concept, which can 
never be verified in consciousness, — a God you 
never can know, because God cannot be known 
through intellect. Still our first conception is the 
intellectual. But this is the " Unknown God " — 
theorized about, but not known. Our first per- 
ceptions are through intellect, which, when quick- 

182 



THE FIRST STEP 

ened, is the " John-the-Baptist" of the mind, able 
to perceive afar off, but unable to know in con- 
sciousness. What intellect perceives, the Spirit- 
ual Man knows — is conscious of. Nevertheless 
intellect " prepares the way of the Lord." 

In searching for the God you can know your 
starting point must be yourself, always the " known 
quantity" and God the "unknown quantity" in 
your Divine equation. You are the key to the 
whole problem. 

Looking beyond the physical body, and dis- 
cerning your eternal Being within, you have the 
key which unlocks the very Holy of Holies, and 
brings you into the Divine presence, where you 
meet God face to face, and know that you know 
him. The recognition of Being within is the first 
step in Spiritual knowledge. It is the Christ Im- 
maculately Conceived within. Then after the full 
period of gestation (meditation) — indicated by 
the mystical number nine (nine months) — with- 
out regard to time — the Christ will be born to 
consciousness,- — The Divine Idea will be fully 
formed in consciousness. 

You start with the " known quantity " — Being, 
within, your " I-Am," — to find the value of " X," 

183 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

the " Unknown Quantity." For God will remain 
the " unknown" to you till you find him through 
the Divinity within you. The Way of the " I Am " is 
" The WA Y." In simple meditation on " I Am " 
the soul perceives, and then becomes conscious of 
the Divine Christ. And through this Mediator 
between the Human and the Divine, you are to 
gain the larger conception of Infinite Being — the 
" I Am-that-I Am." For only through the Son 
can you know the Father. Through the Indi- 
vidual Consciousness you may know the Cosmic 
Consciousness. 

" No man knoweth the Father save the Son." 
When the devout Hebrew reads his Scriptures, 
and comes to the word, Jhvh (Jehovah — Yahveh — 
I Am), the greatest name of God — the " Unutter- 
able Name," he either passes over it in silence or 
substitutes Adoni (Lord), lest the accidental cor- 
rect pronunciation of this " Great and Terrible 
Name " should " shake heaven and earth." For 
though there are many pronunciations, the true 
pronunciation is unknown. The frequent appear- 
ance of the word " Lord " in the Old Testament 
bears unmistakable testimony to that substitution, 



THE FIRST STEP 

as well as to the great veneration and fear in which 
they held this name. 

Thus it is evident that the names, " Jehovah " 
and " Lord " always refer to the Christ, as this 
meaning is inherent in the name itself. Immanuel 
Swedenborg saw this, and correctly affirmed that 
Christ is God, and Jehovah is Christ. He is to be 
found only within ; and his Great Name is, " I 
Am." Therefore his throne is the heart. 

John came as the forerunner of the Christ. He 
stands for Intellect, which looks without to find 
the Christ. Wherefore John said : " I am not 
He;" " There cometh a mightier than I." Yet 
through abiding in the silence ("desert") Intel- 
lect's finer perceptions are quickened ; and with 
the cleansing power of the "Baptism of Repent- 
ance " becomes capable of cognizing the Christ, 
and says, " Behold the Lamb of God ! " Yet this 
Intellect never could do, were there no kinship 
between the Human and the Divine. (John and 
Jesus were Cousins.) 

Without this kinship Intellect never could be 
quickened. But John's negative statement cost 
him his head. Negative statements will always 
defeat you. Therefore be careful never to place 

185 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

negative words after " I Am," Because, while " I 
Am " is the name of the Lord thy God, you are 
thus " taking the name of the Lord thy God in 
vain." " And the Lord will not hold him guilt- 
less, that taketh his name in vain." The effect 
must follow the cause. 

Jesus ever recognized the Christ within himself. 
Hence his positiveness and power in the use of " I 
Am." He spoke understanding^ from the con- 
sciousness of the Christ, saying, "I Am He," "I 
Am the Life," " I Am the Way," " I Am the Good 
Shepherd," "I Am the Light of the world," " I 
am the Son of God," — in no case using a nega- 
tive with " I Am." He proved his Divinity by 
recognizing his Divinity. 

For the place to find God is always within. 

" I searched for God with heart-throbs of despair, 
'Neath ocean's bed, above the vaulted sky : 
And then I searched myself, my inmost I,-— 
And found him there." 

When at the " Burning Bush " Moses found 
God within, as he meditated upon " I Am," and 
identified himself with the Divine, he became 
clothed with omnipotent power to accomplish 

186 



THE FIRST STEP 

what the Divine One required of him. The secret 
of power lies in one's ability to recognize and 
identify himself with Divinity within. Thus find- 
ing your Divine Self, a Divine estate is yours. 
" All that I have is thine," the Bountiful Father 
says to you. " Nothing shall be impossible to you." 

We have not been conscious of our Divinity, 
because we have been in the hypnotic " deep 
sleep " of the Adam Consciousness, from which 
we must be awakened to discover the Higher Self, 
the Son of God, — the " Eve " — who becomes 
" Mary." 

When once awakened to the Spiritual Con- 
sciousness, you will find yourself in an entirely 
new kingdom, the Spiritual Realm, quite unknown 
to you before, — the Kingdom of Heaven. 

For in all the universe God is manifest in vary- 
ing degrees on various planes of consciousness — 
in the various kingdoms of nature. Each of these 
kingdoms is perfect in itself. Yet in it the func- 
tioning entity is powerless to explore or know 
any kingdom above its own to which it has not 
attained. 

The mineral is the lowest kingdom man has 
recognized. This was until within a few years 

187 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

regarded as a dead kingdom ; but modern re- 
search has found that there is nothing dead in 
the universe, that omnipresent Life is in every- 
thing, and that consciousness is everywhere, be- 
cause God is everywhere. Wherever there is Life 
there must be Consciousness, commensurate with 
the degree of Life. All Nature is alive with 
Divine Life, and conscious in a corresponding 
degree. Every kingdom has its own conscious- 
ness. But this is not saying that the lower forms 
have reason, by any means. For reason is the 
function of the brain. But Reason is not con- 
sciousness, any more than digestion. Yet there 
may be consciousness in both. The Mineral can 
function only in its own kingdom. Things of 
higher kingdoms are quite unknown and unknow- 
able to it of necessity. 

Above the Mineral higher in the scale of being 
and consciousness is the Vegetable kingdom, with 
full power to explore and feed upon the mineral 
below it; yet quite powerless to know or explore 
any kingdom above itself. 

The next higher kingdom in the scale of being 
and consciousness is the Animal kingdom ; which, 
while utilizing for itself both the mineral and 



THE FIRST STEP 

vegetable, has the same limitations on the upward 
side. 

For in order to know things of a higher king- 
dom, it is necessary to be in that higher con- 
sciousness. 

Next comes the kingdom of Intellect, still 
higher in the scale of being and consciousness ; 
consequently having higher powers to explore, 
classify, arrange, and utilize all things of all king- 
doms below itself; yet quite incompetent of itself 
to comprehend Spiritual things ; for the simple 
reason that they are of a higher kingdom, — the 
Kingdom of Heaven, where there is a higher, a 
Spiritual Consciousness. 

This reasoning of Professor Drummond's (with 
slight modifications) discloses a universal law, 
governing every kingdom in which the conscious 
entity is functioning. Swedenborg's rule is : Once 
find a law governing the manifestation of life on 
any plane, and you have a universal law, govern- 
ing all forms of life on all planes. On all planes 
of Consciousness God is universal Principle and 
Law. 

Now, then, as in the Animal kingdom Birth is 
the initial step into conscious existence there, — 

189 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

just so in the Vegetable kingdom below, and the 
Spiritual kingdom above, must Birth be the nec- 
essary experience to Consciousness there, accord- 
ing to this universal law. What we have called 
the New Birth is, then, a higher generation - — the 
generation of a higher type or Consciousness — 
the Christ-Consciousness — the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 

The principle of Parthenogenesis is not confined 
to a few of the lower orders of animals, as some 
rotifers and hymenopters ; but is a universal 
principle, having a sphere of operation in the 
Vegetable, Animal, and Spiritual kingdoms. Par- 
thenogenesis seems to be the basis of the law of 
all differentiation, being the production of a higher 
type from the virgin matrix of a lower type, inde- 
pendent of the male ; in which case the seed-germ 
is a Spiritual Idea or principle. 

The first appearance of vegetation on the earth 
must have been by a parthenogenous birth from 
the matrix of the mineral, the kingdom next be- 
low the vegetable ; where the Germ of the future 
plant is Spiritual, existing as an Idea in Infinite 
Mind ; which is forever seeking expression in 



190 



THE FIRST STEP 

form ; since it is the nature and destiny of thought 
to express itself. 

Only the strict materialist will insist that plants 
can grow only from seeds. They first grew with- 
out. For as all Life is Spiritual, every visible ex- 
pression of life must have proceeded from the 
Spiritual by a parthenogenous birth, whenever 
and wherever the duly adapted matrix was found 
empty and receptive to it. 

There is a great universal law of expression 
back of seeds, given in Gen. 2 : 5, — " He made 
every plant of the field before it was in the earth, 
and every herb of the field before it grew." 

This is a statement of the universal law of ex- 
pression, governing the manifestation of every 
form of life on every plane, from the Vegetable 
all the way up to the CHRIST in Consciousness. 
And without such a law we could not see a reason 
for believing in the New Birth. This " plant of 
the field " was eternally " made " long " before it 
was in the earth; " it was made and formed, as a 
definite Idea in Infinite Mind — a Spiritual Germ 
— a living entity, having within itself full power 
to express itself — and ever seeking its natural 
matrix for expression as Plant. And this Divine 

191 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Idea or Logos-Germ will find visible expression just 
as soon as the perfectly adapted matrix is found 
empty and receptive to it. The spontaneous gener- 
ation of plants is a birth by a parthenogenous con- 
ception of the vegetable in the mineral kingdom. 

Are we bold in claiming this as a universal law? 
We have but to open our eyes to read it in the 
book of nature all about us. 

Most people are aware, and every farmer knows, 
that when a growth of timber has been removed, 
and the ground left uncultivated, there is sure to 
spring up what is known as a " second growth " of 
timber, entirely different from the first growth. 
Ask the farmer why and whence this change, and 
his invariable answer is : " This is Second Growth, 
this comes in ! " He sees the fact, yet he knows 
not why. 

Evelyn, a Sixteenth Century writer on timber 
culture, narrates : " When my grandmother's woods, 
consisting entirely of oaks, were cut down, there 
sprang up again, not oaks, but beeches ; and when 
these in turn felt the axe, there arose again spon- 
taneously, not oaks nor beeches, but birches!' 
To believe with our materialistic philosophers, 
who seem to labor hard to avoid the recognition 

192 



THE FIRST STEP 

of the Spiritual Principle, that seeds had been 
lying in the moist soil a Century without either 
sprouting or rotting (which is inevitable), and 
without their being able to discover these seeds — 
would require far greater credulity than to sup- 
pose that Nature fell back on the law of its ex- 
istence — as the Courts fall back on Common 
Law, when they find no statute to fit the case — 
and that they were produced in Nature's original 
way — without seeds. 

In Wisconsin (and this is true in all timbered 
countries) vast areas of pine have been removed 
by the ruthless lumbermen; and the dry tree- 
tops covering the ground have furnished fuel for 
forest fires, which have swept over thousands of 
acres, burning the very soil beyond the germinat- 
ing depth for seeds, thus destroying possibility of 
germinating seeds in the soil. And yet in a year 
or two a new growth of deciduous trees begins to 
grow, without seeds ; so that these extensive empty 
wastes are soon covered with a new " second 
growth " of — not pines — but maple, birch, cherry, 
hickory, etc. 

If the birth of Jesus, or of Buddha (or others 
claiming the same origin), was out of the usual 

i93 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

order by a virginal conception, such a birth, how- 
ever unusual, could not have occurred without 
law, nor in contravention of law, however little we 
may understand the law. 

May not this be the key to all differentiations 
in nature? — a law undiscovered (or at least un- 
acknowledged) by the Darwinian school, whereby 
the race has advanced from very low types by 
many parthenogenous conceptions, -—until the 
great Messianic type, the " desired of all nations," 
at last in due time appeared by a Virginal Birth? 

Again, if it can be proved beyond question that 
plants ever make their appearance without seeds 
this would be a parthenogenous conception in the 
Vegetable kingdom, in obedience to the same uni- 
versal law governing every form of life on the 
earth, on every plane throughout the universe, not 
excepting the so-called miraculous birth of the 
Messiah. And by the same law, and only thus, 
may the Christ be conceived and born in the 
human Consciousness. 

This Spiritual Conception is the True " Immacu- 
late Conception," — of which the physical is its 
symbolic material correspondent, — each factor 
of that correspondence existing by reason of 

194 



THE FIRST STEP 

the other, and each being corroborative of the 
other. 

After these forest fires, and after the Winter 
snows have dissolved in the warm Spring sun's 
rays, this whole vast expanse becomes an empty, 
receptive Womb, waiting and yearning for the 
Spiritual Germ of the exactly adapted plant, ever 
present in the Omnipresent " Brooding Spirit" of 
Universal Mind as an Idea, which is ever seeking 
its proper matrix, which in turn is ever seeking 
its proper Germ, that the plant-Idea may find 
expression as Plant. 

The Voice, which Mary heard announcing her 
Immaculate Conception, is the same Voice Nature 
hears in every Immaculate Conception, on every 
plane of manifestation : " The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee and the Power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee ; and that Holy Thing that 
shall be born of thee, shall be called the SON of 
GOD." 

In the same way, and on a higher plane, the 
human heart, made empty by repentance, becomes 
a receptive Matrix for the Immaculate Conception 
of the Divine Idea of Man - — the Christ-Germ, 
which is ever seeking its adapted matrix, from the 

i9S 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

" overshadowing Spirit." There must be a mutual 
yearning for each other in all of Nature's pro- 
cesses of Birth. You must yearn for the Christ, 
because the Christ is yearning for you. 

" Ye must be born again, or ye cannot see the 
kingdom of God," said Jesus. 

" Except the Christ be born in you, ye are none 
of his," said Paul. 

" Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, 
Unless He 1 s born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn," 

said Schoeffler, the mystic monk of the Seven- 
teenth Century. 

As the Spiritual Logos-plant-germ is always 
present in Omnipresent Mind, so the Spiritual 
Logos-Christ-germ is always present in Omni- 
present Spirit, though unrecognized by Intellect, 
— ready and waiting for the receptivity which 
shall insure the expression of the Christ in Con- 
sciousness. The soul is Human; the Christ is 
Divine. When the Christ becomes incarnated in 
the Human, the Human thereby becomes " trans- 
formed into the image of the Heavenly," thus 
working a Spiritual evolution. 

The Soul in this high function is " Mary," and 
196 



THE FIRST STEP 

is capable of conceiving the Christ, that the Christ 
may become a matter of Consciousness. 

How beautiful and inspiring to contemplate God, 
unfolding himself everywhere, by One Law, 
throughout all Nature the same. 

11 One God, One Law, One Element, 
And One far-off Divine Event, 
Toward which the whole Creation moves." 

It will be borne in mind that we are not speak- 
ing of the law of reproduction, usual and continu- 
ous ; but of the unusual and occasional, — the law 
of Differentiation, whereby a higher manifestation 
of God — a Higher Type — is brought into expres- 
sion ; and wherein the Lower becomes the Matrix 
for the Conception of the Higher. 

This Universal Law of Differentiation by Immac- 
ulate Conceptions in the process of Evolution is 
very important to the scientific mind ; inasmuch 
as it affords a scientific basis for the doctrine of 
Regeneration as a practical experience under nat- 
ural Law, in the higher evolution of man. 

It must now be clear why the New Birth is a 
necessity of the True Christian Life ; and that its 
modus operandi is according to the Divine order 

197 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

of Universal Law. Under this great Law the Holy 
Ghost is the Begetter; the Soul is the Mother; 
and CHRIST is the "Only Begotten Son," who 
thus becomes your Life, your Saviour, your Re- 
deemer, your Salvation. 

Thus there is One Universal Law of evolution 
for plant-Life, for Animal-Life, and for the Christ- 
Life ; since they are all the evolution of the One 
Life, which is God, in various manifestations, on 
different planes of expressions and consciousness. 

If, now, we have discovered the great Law 
whereby the Christ is born in consciousness, may 
we not go to work deliberately and understand- 
ingly to bring about that much-desired experience? 
If we understand the law of the Christ-Conception, 
and are willing to conform to it, we shall certainly 
be in position to do our part in the matter, and 
thus put ourselves in the necessary attitude for 
the Spirit's " overshadowing," in order to the 
Divine Conception. 

We certainly have a part to perform, and we 
can the better perform it for this better under- 
standing of it. 

By " working together with God," — as we must 
in all possible progress, — performing our neces- 

198 



THE FIRST STEP 

sary part under this Law, we may have the 
wonderful experience of Passing a Great Evolu- 
tionary Boundary, in our march from the Human 
to the Divine, from the Animal-human to the 
Divine-human, in Consciousness. And what we 
are in consciousness, that we are ! We are to 
become in Consciousness Sons of God. 

If, now, you will carefully follow us in thought, 
we will outline the course of thought action neces- 
sary to bring us the experience of the Immacu- 
late Conception of the Christ in Consciousness. 

To this end we will put ourselves in the condi- 
tion of passive receptivity, silencing all desires, 
eliminating from consciousness all things of Carnal 
Mind, even rejecting the Carnal self. Then let us 
hunger and thirst for Divine things ; let us yearn 
for the perfect Christ in Consciousness — the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

We will follow a line of Spiritual reasoning 
calculated to bring about the much desired 
transformation. 

To the honest searcher for the highest Spiritual 
experience the following formula of words will be 
found helpful in leading the aspiring soul into the 
correct attitude for the Great Conception. 

199 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Directions: Repeat the following Statements, 
at intervals often seconds of silence, in which you 
make each statement your very own, baptizing it 
with the heart's holiest Love, in the Holy of 
Holies of your heart. " John " appears in the 
two first statements of negation, thus to " prepare 
the Way of the Lord " by his " Baptism of Re- 
pentance " — rejecting and casting out old erro- 
neous conceptions: 

A Meditation for the Immaculate Conception 
of the Christ in Consciousness: 

I am not a Material Being — a "Worm of 
the Dust." 

I am not a " Fallen Being" " Totally De- 
praved." But 

I am a Spiritual Being — a Son of God. 

I " Call no man upon earth my Father : 
One is my Father, even God." 

Therefore, 

i am wholly spiritual — now. 

i "live, move, and have my being in 
Spirit." 

I AM ENFOLDED IN SPIRIT OMNIPRESENT. 
I AM STRONG WITH TRUTH'S OMNIPOTENCE. 



THE FIRST STEP 
I AM FILLED AND THRILLED WITH OMNIPOTENT 

Life. 

i am enfolded in infinite love. 

i am bathed in the cleansing fountain of 
Love. 

i am purified by the " consuming flre " of 
Love. 

i am thirsting for the fulness of love. 

i am yearning for the " llfe more abund- 
ANT." 

i am discerning the spiritual substance 
of my Being. 
i am resting in the consciousness of the 

ENFOLDING PRESENCE. 

"The Holy Ghost now comes upon me, 
and the Power of the Highest over- 
shadows me." 

i am receiving the living christ-truth. 

I am Conceiving the Living CHRIST. 

I AM DISCERNING THE CHRIST LIVING WITH- 
IN. 

I AM FEELING THE " QUICKENING SPIRIT." 

I AM CONSCIOUS OF THE QUICKENING CHRIST- 
LlFE. 

I AM CONSCIOUSLY A SON OF GOD. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 
I AM FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF PEACE, — 

"Peace on earth: Good Will to Men." 

i am now identified with christ. 

" In the City of LOVE (David) CHRIST 
is born to-day: glory to god in the 
Highest." 

i am awakening to a new consciousness. 

i am unfolding the christ-conscious- 

NESS. 

i am now governed by the new-found 
Christ-Principle. 

" I live ; yet not I : CHRIST liveth in 
me." 

CHRIST is my Life, unceasing and unob- 
structed. 

CHRIST is my Health, unfailing and un- 
impaired. 

i am in at-one-ment with christ. 

A New Life-Blood now circulates in 

MY VEINS. 

It is the CHRIST-LIFE living me. And 
thus 

"The Blood of CHRIST cleanseth me 
from all Sin." 



202 



THE FIRST STEP 

I am Every Whit Whole — through 
Christ. 

Now the Christ indwelling molds me 
into his Likeness, and fills me with inef- 
fable Peace Amen, 

(Repeat these Statements in Meditation daily, 
until the Christ is awakened in Consciousness.) 



Presuming that you have so sincerely and 
faithfully performed this exercise as to have a 
conscious " quickening," then you have experi- 
enced the New Conception. The New Birth fol- 
lows in its own time ; which is the First Step in 
Regeneration, making you a " New Creature in 
Christ Jesus," where " old things have passed 
away, and behold ! all things have become New." 
But you are not yet fully regenerated. You have 
but just entered the " Way." Five other Steps 
remain to be taken, before you are fully Christ-ed 
— Regenerated. 

11 And the Lord said unto Rebecca, « Two Nations are in 
thy womb ; two manner of people .' " — Gen. 25:23. 



203 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

These dissimilar Twin Brothers, Jacob and Esau, 
are the Two Natures which are struggling within 
you. They are the Spiritual and the Natural, the 
Real and the Unreal, the Ideal and the Apparent, 
the True and the False, the Divine and the Hu- 
man. Hitherto the Human (Esau) has ruled you : 
henceforth the Divine (Jacob) is in dominion. 

For like Abraham you are called to leave the 
old life, and to form for yourself a New World of 
higher aims and higher experiences. 

You have thus entered the Way of Regenera- 
tion, being born of the Spirit — " not of corrupti- 
ble seed, but of incorruptible." 

In your New Consciousness you are a New Man, 
with New Faculties and powers. For you are 
consciously a Son of God ; and have New Senses, 
— a New Sight, unknown to the old man, which 
reveals to you a world of heavenly beauty. You 
have a New Hearing, before unknown, which en- 
ables you to hear the " Voice of the Lord." 

" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," 

You breathe a New Breath — the " Breath of 
Life" — Divine Inspiration. Instead of the con- 

204 



THE FIRST STEP 

sciousness of mere air-breathing, you are conscious 
of Life-breathing. 

You are using the faculties and powers of the 
Spiritual Man. 

Henceforth understanding your New Nature 
with its New Faculties and Powers, realizing your 
Spiritual Manhood, you will no longer complain 
of bad health or bad blood or sluggish circulation; 
because the very "Ichor of the Gods" — the 
"Blood of Christ" (the Life of Christ) courses in 
your veins, quickening into perfect Health. 

For in your new Manhood the Omnipotent 
Christ lives you. 

" I live; yet not I ; Christ, liveth (in) me." 



205 



VIII 

THE SECOND STEP : — UNFOLDMENT IN WISDOM 
UNTO MANHOOD 

"And the Child grew and waxed strong, filled with 
Wisdom ; and the Grace of God was upon him." 

1 ' And when he was Twelve Years Old they went up to 
Jerusalem after the custom of the feast." 

" After Three Days they found him in the Temple, sitting 
in the midst of the Doctors." — Luke 2: 40, 42, 46. 

" This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
— Luke 3: 22. 

As under the Mosaic symbology we traced the 
orderly unfoldment of the Spiritual Consciousness 
through its successive Six Steps unto its fully illu- 
minated manifestation, — so now under the more 
forceful symbology of the life of Jesus the Christ, 
as a Living Allegory, we advance in the Spiritual 
or Christ-Consciousness from its Initial Step of 
Conception and Birth to the Second Step, the 
WISDOM Period of that Evolution,— "unto the 

206 



THE SECOND STEP 

measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ" 
(Eph. 4: 14). 

When through Wisdom the Christ-Stature is at- 
tained, then and not till then may you receive the 
Spirit's Baptism, in which you will receive the 
revelation of Son-ship. You cannot receive this 
by going in your own way; but only after a 
suitable unfoldment through Spiritual Wisdom. 

Our First Step in this evolution was the spring- 
ing up in Consciousness of a New Principle — a 
Divine Idea, before unknown (because of a higher 
plane), which filled the whole Consciousness with 
a supreme delight, a joyous satisfaction. 

This new-born Infant Idea, Spiritually conceived 
and born to Consciousness, so pure and delightful 
in its appearing in the mind, you will lovingly 
cherish and tenderly care for during its incipient 
stage of manifestation in Consciousness ; and be- 
cause it is so pleasing to your quickened Spiritual 
sense, you will carefully guard it against every 
danger from your own unregenerate thoughts, 
until it shall unfold the WISDOM of God in Con- 
sciousness, — even unto the " Stature of Christ." 

Do not for a moment imagine your supreme at- 
tainment is reached because you have the joyful 

207 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

experience of the New Birth. Through unwise 
teachers many have made this mistake, and thus 
dwarfed their unfoldment. In your joy do not 
think you have nothing more to do because the 
Christ is born. You have but entered the "Way" 
of a course of unfoldment, whose purpose and 
ultimate end is the Spiritualization and regener- 
ation of both soul and body. 

This wonderful Child is committed to your care, 
and now becomes your charge ; and your Spiritual 
unfoldment will depend on your fidelity to this 
charge. But with a fixed purpose to be true to 
the monitions of the Spirit, you may rejoice at 
the glorious prospect of this unfolding unfold- 
ment, with great expectations from the opening 
vistas before you. 

But Intellect does not readily receive the Christ. 
It is so completely occupied with things of this 
objective life that " there is no room for him in 
the Inn." Yet in the stillness of the night — when 
Intellect is quiescent — in the subconscious mind 
- — close to the instinct nature, where innocence is 
found, — among the beasts — there is the Christ 
brought forth to Consciousness. 

Here in the Inner Love Centre, where Mother- 
208 



THE SECOND STEP 

hood dwells, he is joyfully received and tenderly 
cared for. Yet there are whole realms of the 
mind still unawakened, in utter darkness as to this 
New Light now dawning. In this region of unre- 
generate thought Herod is King; and here he 
rules with a rod of iron. 

At your " Judah " Centre you are now enlight- 
ened, and your better nature is sure to triumph. 
It is no longer the Carnal Will by which you are 
to be governed, but the Spiritual Will. Because 
the Christ is begotten of Love, and Love is wedded 
to Wisdom. 

Your tender motherly Understanding (Mary) 
and your fatherly Will (Joseph) are called upon 
to give their sincere devotion and faithful protec- 
tion during the earlier period of this beautiful 
Christ Life. For in your heart of hearts you are 
really in love with Truth. For there is always 
something intrinsic in it which commends itself. 
Somehow you know it instinctively. Therefore 
you will surely shield it from Herod's cruel hand. 

By the New Conception and New Birth you 
enter upon a New Life for the unfoldment of a 
New Manhood, — Manhood of a higher type — 
Christ-Manhood — Regenerate Manhood. 

209 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 
i 
In this Second Degree, the Youth Period of 

your Christ Manhood, you are to develop Wisdom 
and Understanding in order to receive the " in- 
crease in Stature " of that Manhood. Therefore 
to seek and appropriate Wisdom is the first duty 
of every Christian, since there is no soul growth 
possible without it. 

" There came Wise Men from the East to wor- 
ship Him." 

From the mysterious " East," the source of 
Light — from the Spiritual and not from Intellect, 
will come to the renewed Consciousness a greater 
Light and higher Wisdom than Intellect knows 
anything about. 

It is Spiritual Wisdom — true Wisdom — Divine 
Wisdom — Wisdom not contained in books nor 
taught by man, — beyond the wisdom of the 
world. For " the wisdom of the world is foolish- 
ness with God." Genuine Wisdom brings to the 
mind illumination — like the ushering in of a new 
Day, its wonderful Light dispelling the deep dark- 
ness of unregenerate Carnal Mind. Therefore the 
coming of the " Wise Man " represents the coming 
of the Light of Truth to the mind, — bearing its 
rich " gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh," 

2IO 






THE SECOND STEP 

representing Love, Joy, and Peace. For Love is 
the " Gold," Joy the fragrant " Frankincense," and 
Peace the soothing " Myrrh " of the Christ-Con- 
sciousness. 

The right of Circumcision administered to the 
holy Child symbolizes your own act of consecra- 
tion of this beautiful Christ-Principle as your own 
highest Good — your own Salvation. For Truth 
is the principle of Salvation ; and Christ is Truth ; 
its name is " Jesus," which means Saviour. 

The murderous Herod's hostility shows the re- 
bellion of Carnal Will, king in the realm of Carnal 
Mind, at the suggestion that a greater King has 
appeared in the Conscious Mind. He! will not 
readily concede the supreme authority of the 
Spiritual over the Intellectual ; he will not recog- 
nize this rising King of the Jews. He trembles at 
the thought, that Carnal Will must lose its king- 
dom, and submit to the reign of the Christ. For 
Carnal Mind is always afraid and envious of the 
Spiritual, because it stands condemned before it. 
" This is condemnation, that Light has come into 
the world." 

Carnal Will, if it were allowed its way, would 
exterminate the Christ from Consciousness. This 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

is the " chemicalization " which takes place, when 
the condemning Light of Truth shines upon the 
guilty conscience. " Herod seeks the young 
Child to destroy it." How bitterly men some- 
times fight against the Spirit's working in their 
hearts ! But the Infant Christ, being safely en- 
shrined in your Love Centre, and consecrated as 
your own Salvation, you will surely shield from 
Herod. For this purpose you " go down into 
Egypt." That is, you begin to use your Reason 
in defence of the Christ. For the wisdom of Intel- 
lect is the " Wisdom of Egypt;" and Spiritual 
Wisdom is not yet unfolded ; it is but in its Infant 
stage. Every new convert is very enthusiastic in 
the use of Intellect in defence of the Christ, — 
which is very proper. It is the natural order. 

But Intellect is to be ultimately redeemed by 
the Christ-ing of the mind, after you have " gone 
into all the world, and preached the Gospel to 
every creature " of subconscious mind. For all 
things are occurring in your own Microcosmic 
world within. 

When Herod dies — when this chemicalization 
subsides — you " arise, and go into Israel." For 
true Spiritual development you are called out of 

212 



THE SECOND STEP 

Egypt, ~ to increase in Spiritual thought — de- 
livered from the domination of Intellect. By med- 
itation on the Christ you shall know True Wis- 
dom. Through meditation you begin to live from 
the Spiritual; so that the Spiritual becomes 
natural to you. This is your higher natural, 
where for Spiritual Realization you do not need to 
cast your thought in the mold of intellectual 
formula — " Out of Egypt have I called my Son." 

You are now advancing in the Christ Life in 
the true way, — that of meditation, — and you there- 
fore " wax strong in Spirit, filled with Wisdom." 
Through meditation you reach a new state of 
Consciousness, unfolding Wisdom beyond the 
conception of Intellect. Having established the 
meditative habit — dwelling in contemplation of 
the Christ within — -the " Wisdom of Egypt" no 
longer dominates you. Intellect is held in 
abeyance, that you may continually hear the 
voice of the Spirit and be led in Wisdom's way. 
This is your call out of Egypt. 

Having been well fed and nourished on the 
Spiritual pabulum or " sincere milk of the Word," 
you are advancing beyond the Infant stage of the 
Christ-Consciousness to the Youth Period. The 

213 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

fulness and completeness of this Wisdom unfold- 
ment is indicated by the mystic expression, 
" Twelve Years Old." 

In the Scriptures " Twelve " is a great mystical 
number, always referring to Spiritual things, as 
"ten" refers to human or natural things. On the 
Spiritual plane it must never be taken literally or 
numerically. It is the number of fulness or com- 
pleteness, and denotes All — the fulness of some 
principle named in the text. As the principle 
named is " Wisdom," it signifies that in this stage 
of progress all things of Wisdom are open to you 
to be manifested to your understanding through 
the demonstrations of experience. In all this you 
are most truly " about your Father's business." 

In the interpretation of all inspired writings the 
Spiritual sense requires the elimination of Time 
and Space from thought, that the full Spiritual 
experience may be Now and Here, having neither 
to be waited for nor journeyed to. For the King- 
dom of Heaven is neither past nor future, near 
nor far. It is Now and Here — " nigh thee, and 
in thy heart and in thy mouth." 

Now, as the Youth period extends to Manhood, 
and is the time for gaining Wisdom on both the 

214 



THE SECOND STEP 

planes of Intellect and Spirit, so in this Conscious- 
ness all things of Wisdom (" 12") are unfolding 
you to your Christ-manhood, or the " Stature of 
Christ," which is " Thirty Years Old!' The Soul 
after being fed on all things of Wisdom (" 12 ") 
unfolds to the "Stature of that manhood " (" 30"). 

By means of the fulness of Wisdom (" 12 ") 
you arrive at the fulness of Manhood (" 30 "). In 
the language of symbolism there is no chasm or 
hiatus between the mystic "12" and the mystic 
" 30." This is the reason the allegory of history 
is silent concerning the interval of time between 
twelve and thirty years. For symbolically speak- 
ing there is nothing to be stated, for the " 12" of 
Wisdom carries you to the " 30 " of manhood. 
Or " 12" extends to "30" in the language of 
symbolism. Time is not to be considered. 

There is also a very sufficient reason why " 12 " 
is used in the one case and a multiple of " 10" in 
the other. For what ten signifies on the natural 
plane, twelve signifies on the Spiritual plane. 
Always "10" and its multiples refer to things 
human, while " 12 " and its multiples refer to 
things Spiritual. Also the half of "10" (5) 



«5 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

stands for the sense man; and the half of " 12" 
(6) for the Spiritual Man (of six senses). 

We may now construct a numerical formula or 
equation to symbolically represent the Atonement 
— the reconciliation of the Human with the 
Divine: 3X10=6 + 2X12. Here by means 
of the divinizing power of the Trinity number (3) 
the human (" 10") receives a transmutation, so to 
speak, by multiplication; so that thereby the 
human ("10") becomes the equivalent of the 
Divine ("12"). For " 10," through multiplica- 
tion by the Divine number " 3," the number of 
the Trinity (3 X 10), receives a Divine value 
through the divinizing power of the number " 3 ; " 
and 6+2 X 12 stands for the " Stature of Christ," 
its Spiritual equivalent. This is saying that the 
human, when spiritually transformed, becomes 
Divine. To explain further: 

The Divine Self (the Christ within) is the 
"Elder Brother" of the Human Self; and the 
" Elder Brother " always receives a " double por- 
tion " (2 X 12) of Divine things. Hence we 
may say: The Divinized Human (3 X 10) equals 
the Spiritual Man (" 6 ") with his " double por- 
tion " (6 + 2 X 12). Therefore the equation 

216 



THE SECOND 3TEP 

3 io = 6 + 2Xi 2 represents man's at-one- 
ment with the Divine through unfoldment in 
Wisdom, giving him the " Stature of Christ," 
— the Divine Humanity. 

When this " Stature " in consciousness is 
reached, then and not till then will follow the 
Spirit's Baptismal enduement and illumination, 
with the consciousness of the Divine approval 
and the revelation of Son-ship : " This is My 
Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This 
is the climax of the Second Step in Regenera- 
tion, — the Human arriving at the consciousness 
of its Divinity, and receiving thereby a great illu- 
mination through that revelation. 

The " 144,000 " who stand with the " Lamb " 
on Mount Zion, having the Divine Name in their 
foreheads, singing the song none else could learn, 
who are " Virgins without blemish," mentioned in 
Rev. 14th, is another illustration of numerical 
symbology for picturing the redemption of the 
" 10" in the " 12," in their multiples, to portray 
the perfect Salvation of the individual, rather than 
so many persons saved. Here the cube of " 10" 
(1,000) is multiplied into the square of "12" 
(144), making 144,000, thereby uniting and 

217 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

blending the Human (" 10") with the Divine 
(" 12 "), symbolizing the union and absorption 
of the Human in the Divine. For Salvation is 
the Redemption of the Human ( " 10") by the 
evolution of the Christ (" 12 ") in Consciousness. 

Numbers are a part of the great symbolic 
system of the Scriptures, since every Hebrew 
word has a numerical value. It was the idea of 
Pythagoras, that there is mathematics in every- 
thing; that everything is capable of being ex- 
pressed in mathematical formula. 

Therefore it is reasonable that there should be 
a Spiritual significance to the numbers of the 
Bible, since they are a part of the great symbolic 
system to represent spiritual things. 

Further, to show that " Twelve Years Old " 
refers to unfoldment in Wisdom, it will be noted 
that the Youth, Jesus, was found " sitting in the 
midst of the Doctors, both hearing and asking 
them questions." Not that he is dispensing 
profoundest intellectual Wisdom, as some would 
have us think, but " hearing them!' — listening to 
their Wisdom, — and " asking them questions;" 
like any inquiring mind searching for Truths For 
this is the Human Jesus unfolding the Divine 

218 



THE SECOND STEP 

Christ within himself. Only in the light of the 
unfolding Christ can we properly question the 
formulae of Intellect; because her statements 
are never exact and Absolute Truth. They are 
simply human opinion. 

In Metaphysics this is all an inward experience. 
The learned intellectual " Doctors " are there, 
proud of their boasted wisdom; and the unfolding 
Christ is there in his meekness. Thus the individ- 
ual is getting glimpses of that transcendent Wis- 
dom, of which the world knows nothing. These 
glimpses " astonish the doctors." 

Every one who is unfolding the Christ " sits 
among the doctors," searching for the CHRIST- 
WISDOM in the Youth of his unfoldment. Truth is 
what he is seeking ; and Christ is Truth. 

" Wisdom is the principal thing : therefore get 
Wisdom; and with all thy getting get Understand- 
ing ; exalt her, and she shall promote thee ; she 
shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace 
her; she shall bring to thy head an ornament of 
grace, and a crown of glory shall she deliver unto 
thee " (Prov. 4: 7-9). 

This lesson treats of Wisdom. It is the Wis- 
dom Degree of our evolution. In this Degree we 

219 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

apply ourselves to the study of the Ideal and the 
Absolute, the Spiritual and Metaphysical; that we 
may " increase in Wisdom," and attain to the 
" Stature of Christ." 

Unfolding Divine Wisdom, we must become the 
teachers of the " Doctors " of the mind. For In- 
tellect is in darkness respecting Spiritual things, 
and must be enlightened by Christ, the great 
Light-bearer, that its redemption may be accom- 
plished by the Christ. 

Wherefore we shall attempt to express our 
Spiritual Ideas in intellectual terms, to intellect- 
ualize our Spiritual Conceptions, — and thus to 
spiritualize Intellect. 

The learned " Doctors " must now listen to the 
Christ. 

Deductive reasoning is the only form suited to 
this work. For as our highest Ideal is God, the 
Absolute of Being, we will make this our starting 
point in deductive reasoning. Then we will pro- 
ceed to carry this principle of absolute knowledge 
into the intellectual formula of the syllogism, thus 
intellectualizing our Spiritual Idea, whereby the 
Christ — the Spiritual Ego — becomes the teacher 
of the " Doctors" of the mind. 



THE SECOND STEP 

In our search for highest Truth we have, in our 
Mosaic Course, declared that God is the One 
Great, Underived Original Principle or First 
Cause, — the Supreme Reality of all things visible 
and invisible in the universe, — the One and Only 
— the ALL. 

To this Original Being, Omnipresent, Omniscient, 
and Omnipotent, we gave other names, to express 
some quality or attribute of the Absolute, such as 
"Good," "Love," " Truth," "Life," etc. 

Now, in forming our Syllogism for deductive 
reasoning we lay down 

our Major Premise, . . "God is Good," and 

our Minor Premise, . . " God is Omnipresent; " 

whence follows the in- 
evitable Conclusion, . Good is Omnipresent; 

and the equally nec- 
essary Corollary, . . Evil is nowhere present. 

Indeed, if God is Good, and the Good is every- 
where in the Omnipresence, where in all the uni- 
verse can we find a point in space for Evil to be? 
If the Omnipresence is Good, then the Good is 
All; and there is nothing but Good, as our syl- 
logism has demonstrated. 

221 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Good is the eternal, positive, indestructible Real- 
ity. Evil is the temporal manifestation of the 
Negative, suppositional Contradictory of Reality, 
- — the illusory Unreality, which like every Lie 
vanishes with the realization of its falsity. 

It is one of the basic rules of logic, that of two 
Contradictories but one can be affirmed. The 
other must of necessity be denied and rejected. 
Therefore the Contradictories, Good and Evil, can- 
not both be Realities. If we affirm one, we must 
deny the other. 

Again we lay down 

our Major Premise, . . " God is Love," and 

our Minor Premise, . . " God is Omnipresent; " 

whence follows the un- 
avoidable Conclusion, Love is Omnipresent, 

and the equally nec- 
essary Corollary, . . Hate is nowhere present. 

In the realm of unchanging and eternal Reality 
Hate is another false claimant, an " appearance," 
which appears, but is not ; because in the realm of 
Reality it does not even appear. 

Again we lay down 



THE SECOND STEP 

our Major Premise, . . " God is Life," and 

our Minor Premise, . . "God is Omnipresent;" 

whence follows the un- 
avoidable Conclusion, Life is Omnipresent; 

and the equally nec- 
essary Corollary, . . Death is nowhere present. 

Indeed, if Life is* God, the only presence and 
Reality, then Death, although an " appearance " 
in consciousness, has no real Entity ', and therefore 
does not exist. For in the Divine Consciousness 
it is not. Having only the characteristics of a 
false claimant, it is the Giant Falsity, the stupen- 
dous Lie of the Human Consciousness, which 
through the unfoldment of the Christ in Regen- 
eration must disappear, first from Conscious- 
ness, then ultimately from manifestation. 

This is the Great Victory, which shall be ulti- 
mately achieved. " The last Enemy that shall be 
destroyed is Death." 

Everything Real Is by reason of God, its soul 
and basic Substance. Therefore the hypothetical 
negatives, Evil, Hate, Death, etc., not having 
Being in God, must be unreal, transitory, and 
illusory. They are real only to a consciousness 

223 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

which is itself unreal. It is because men are in 
this false Consciousness that they have a distorted, 
astigmatic vision of things, and regard these 
negative unrealities with great seriousness, and 
fear them, and suffer accordingly. But Realities 
are never to be feared. There is nothing in them 
of the nature to awaken fear, which only springs 
up in the darksome realm of illusion, — never in 
the realm of Truth. 

Men will not say that " Life is not worth the 
living" when they recognize Divinity within them- 
selves, and understand that Life is God. That 
very recognition and understanding is the first 
step out of the darkness into the clear sunlight, 
where shadows do not obtain. In the realm of 
Reality all things subsist in God, the unchanging 
Good — the very Substance of Reality. 

" I am God ; beside Me there is none else." 

That other God, which has been worshipped by 
Carnal Mind, called "Evil" and "Devil," men 
have fallen down before in abject fear of its sup- 
posed malific power. Yet, like all false Gods, it 
has no existence, Reality, or power, except what 
Carnal mind has attributed to it. Indeed, we seem 

224 



THE SECOND STEP 

to have had two Gods, a good God and a bad God. 
In this we have been continually breaking the 
First Commandment. Idolatry is the acknowl- 
edgment of another power beside the GOOD. 
To exalt Evil to the dignity of Reality is to make 
it a God. Like all the false gods of the so-called 
heathen^ this Evil-God, or Devil-God, is an arti- 
ficial creation of Carnal Mind. " God is One," 
is the fundamental conception of the Hebrews. 

We will here repeat our definition of God, as 
given in the Mosaic Course, which, it must be 
remembered, is but our conception. 

/"Being, (Life, (Principle, 

God is I Mind, < Truth, < Substance, 
( Spirit, ( Love, ' Will — , — 

Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent; — a Trin- 
ity of Trinities in Unity ; the All-embracing, IN- 
FINITE One; the Being of all beings, the Life 
of all lives ; the Substance of all substances ; 
the Universal, Unchangeable Good ; the All- 
Father-Mother-Son. And Man is a Son of 
God with all that this implies. 

"The All-embracing Infinite One " is necessa- 
rily all there is. 

225 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Hence there is no Life, Being, Mind, or Sub- 
stance but God. 

We must realize the one-ness of Life, Being, 
Mind, and Substance, if we would evolve out of 
our unsatisfactory situation into the serenity of the 
Divine Consciousness. 

It is not strange that we have had discord and 
confusion all the way along, with two opposing 
and contending forces besetting our path. We 
have had two opposing Beings, two opposing 
Lives, two opposing Substances, two opposing 
Minds, two opposing Principles. Oneness with 
God in Spirit, Being, Life, and Substance must be 
realized. 

We must know how to say, " I and the Father 
are One " scientifically, if we would know "the 
height and depth and length and breadth " of the 
Christ-Consciousness. 

When we are able to realize that in God's true 
Creation there is nothing opposing or to be op- 
posed, there will come to the mind " The Most 
Great Peace " — " the Peace of God, that passeth 
understanding." God's Peace is the peace of the 
Great At-one-ment. 

The Great Atonement is accomplished by the 
226 



THE SECOND STEP 

recognition of the Christ within, as the " Media- 
tor between the Two," whereby the Two become 
One, making the at-one-ment. 

Through the Mediator within (the "I-Am") 
you may know the great " I-Am-that-I-Am," and 
find the two are One. The realization of perfec- 
tion, which comes through conscious one-ness with 
God, is Salvation. Your problem is one of realiza- 
tion. It is not to strive to be, but to be ; not to 
strive to be Good, but to recognize your own 
Goodness ; not to strive to be holy, but to recog- 
nize your own holiness ; not to strive to be healthy, 
but to recognize your own health. For in Being 
and Essence you are already what God is. 

Thus in the Wisdom stage of our evolution all 
things of Wisdom are unfolding to our unfolding 
minds ; whereby we find ourselves consciously en- 
larged in Spiritual " stature;" until we find our- 
selves in the state represented by another mystic 
number — " 30 " — " thirty years old," — the 
" Stature of Christ." 

In the fulness of the Christ Life new possibili- 
ties are opening before us; greater and still greater 
things are awaiting us ; a still more glorious life 



227 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

opens to our consciousness, as we press forward 
in the Divine Way. 

The unfolding Christ has brought us to the very 
portal of the Kingdom, the beautiful glimpses and 
foretastes of which lead us to repentance. Out of 
the silence of the soul the voice of the mystical 
"John" is heard saying: "Repent, for the King- 
dom of Heaven is at hand." 

This outcasting of every thought inimical to the 
Christ " prepares the way of the Lord." The 
Baptism of repentance is the peculiar work of 
" John " in every heart intent on making the great 
demonstration. This is the voluntary rejection 
of sins of thought, word, or deed, that nothing 
but Righteousness in consciousness may remain. 
" Every one that hath this hope purifieth himself, 
even as he is pure." 

When in this Wisdom Degree you have rejected 
every old false race idea, and have washed the 
mind of its impurities in the " Jordan " of Spiritual 
thought, then will the Spirit of Truth bring its 
message of peace, and fill you with the glory of 
the revelation of your True Self. " This is My 
Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This 
is the Spirit's revelation to your soul. 



THE SECOND STEP 

But while this fact you had before accepted in 
an intellectual Way, it could not be Spiritually 
understood, without the Spirit's revealing. 

You now stand on the high eminence of Spirit- 
ual illumination, with your True Self revealed to 
yourself. But you are not to stop here ; for the 
goal of Spiritual evolution is not yet reached. 
You must descend from this high eminence of 
illumination to the plane of practical life, there to 
demonstrate in practical experience all that the 
Spirit has revealed in the mount of Spiritual exal- 
tation, before it can be a matter of your own Con- 
sciousness, before it has value in your own un- 
foldment — before it can be your Wisdom. 

Therefore you are to prove that you are a Son 
of God, in the arena of life. You must be tried 
and proved in the next lesson. 

" Search me, O God, and know my heart; try 
me and know my thoughts, and see if there be 
any wicked way in me ; and lead me in the way 
everlasting." 

The student who desires this unfoldment of the 
Christ in Consciousness will find it helpful to re- 
peat the meditation of the last lesson at the close 
of this and the lessons following. 

229 



IX 



THE THIRD STEP : — OVERCOMING — " THE 
WILDERNESS " 

" Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness 
to be tempted of the Devil. And when he had fasted Forty 
Days he was afterward an hungered." — Matt. 4 : 1, 2. 

In the First Step was shown the law whereby the 
Divine Thought or Idea is brought into expression 
(or rather is born into material manifestation) to 
be the one universal law governing every form or 
manifestation of life, whether Vegetable, Animal, or 
Spiritual, — One Law universal and indispensable, 
operating without exception on every plane of 
God's world of manifest expressions. 

In the story of the " Immaculate Conception " 
and Birth of the Type-Man, Jesus is represented 
in objective symbol the esoteric experience of the 
individual as he begins the unfoldment of the 
Christ in Consciousness. For all things in the ob- 
jective world have their correspondence in the sub- 
jective experience. Thus we have the process of 

230 



THE THIRD STEP 

the Conception, Birth, and Unfoldment of the Spir- 
itual Idea in the individual Consciousness, with the 
various stages of development of a Higher Con- 
sciousness. 

The Higher Consciousness sought we call by 
such names as, the Christ Consciousness, the 
Spiritual Consciousness, the God Consciousness, 
the Cosmic Consciousness. Different writers use 
these various terms for the same thing. This Con- 
ception is a definite, Divine Idea conceived in the 
matrix of the Human Consciousness, which when 
unfolded to maturity becomes that Diviner Con- 
sciousness which makes you a " New Creation in 
Christ Jesus." 

Theology has accepted this one case of a birth 
out of the usual order, because it affords a corre- 
spondent symbol of the True Immaculate Con- 
ception of the Christ in Consciousness. 

But if we grant the existence of the one case, 
by the same law we may expect to find it con- 
firmed in other cases. Accordingly we have the 
birth of John the Baptist told in very much the 
same terms, the birth of Isaac, " when Abraham 
was an hundred years old ! " and " Sarah past 
age ! " and the birth of Samuel, as well as the 

231 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

birth of the Shunamite woman's son. In each case 
there is mentioned an insurmountable impediment; 
and we are not told that the impediment was re- 
moved ; but rather that the impossible took place, 
notwithstanding the insurmountable impediment. 
And how? By the coming in of a Higher Law to 
beget and bring forth a higher type, — a law which 
must have been operative from the beginning of 
Creation (if creation ever had a beginning), — a 
law making Differentiation possible for the evolu- 
tion of the species, — a process in which Divinity 
is always the prime factor, and without which 
there could be no evolution by differentiation. 
Wherefore a Higher Type is the inevitable result. 
And thus we see the One Universal Law, whereby 
Man has evolved from lowest types by many Im- 
maculate Conceptions, which our retrospective 
glance may recognize in the different races. 

We have now found the Great Law for the Birth 
of a Higher Consciousness when the mind becomes 
a receptive and adapted matrix for the Spiritual 
Germ or Divine Idea. Regeneration is thus seen 
to be scientific in principle, because we understand 
the Law of its operation. There is nothing un- 
natural or miraculous when we know the Law. 

232 



THE THIRD STEP 

Having received the Spiritual Conception, in 
our hearts we cherished this beautiful Christ-Idea, 
or Spiritual Germ, until we felt the " Quickening 
Spirit," the first sure sign of a New Life within. 
Then abiding in the secret place of the Spirit, we 
were able to sing Mary's Song — for the Soul is 
Mary : — " My spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
Saviour." " While shepherd-like we watched our 
flocks" (pure, innocent thoughts) " by night" 
(darkness of unregenerate mind) the joyful An- 
nunciation reverberated in consciousness: " In 
the City of Love (David) CHRIST is born to- 
day ; Glory to God in the Highest." 

We studiously nurtured and guarded this Royal 
Child of Consciousness, until we consecrated it 
as our own Highest Good and choicest Spiritual 
treasure. This Consecration corresponds to the 
rite of Circumcision. 

Then in our Second Step we advanced through 
the Wisdom Stage of our Christ-unfoldment — 
the " Twelve Years Old " period, where we " in- 
creased in Wisdom and Stature," until Wisdom 
had ripened us into the fully matured Christ-Con- 
sciousness. Discerning then the beauty, loveli- 
ness, and desirableness of the dawning Kingdom of 

233 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Heaven, we heard the voice of " John " within 
calling to us, and bidding us cast out all things of 
thought inimical to the Christ, who comes with 
his " fan in his hand," to blow away the chaff of 
error, and to " gather the wheat (of ripened 
Truth) into his garner." 

John is the highest faculty of the Natural Man, 

— the moral sense which, if heeded, always calls 
to repentance, which thus " prepares the Way of 
the Lord." 

To our hearts thus purified and prepared, the 
Spirit revealed to us the highest fact of Being, 
namely, that we are God's " Well Beloved Son." 
This is the Spirit's revelation of yourself to yourself 

— of the Higher Self to the lower Self — the Son of 
God within made manifest to Consciousness. What 
had been before dimly perceived by Intellect, and 
not understood, is now clearly revealed — Spiritu- 
ally known. " The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirits, that we are Sons of God" (Rom. 
8 : 16). Only by a revelation can this high Truth 
be known. Intellect cannot reveal Spiritual 
Truth, neither can it know it from itself. 

This inner knowledge, the first step in Spiritual 



234 



THE THIRD STEP 

Wisdom, must come by a revelation, and in no 
other way. Yet this is not a demonstration. 

The revelation is the Spirit's work ; the demon- 
stration is yours. " If thou be the Son of God, 
thou must prove it by every overcoming," must 
have been the way the Master reasoned as each 
temptation was encountered ; or else the wily 
tempter would not have made use of this formula, 
as if to take him on his own ground, and lead him 
into the sin of presumption. This is not saying 
that the tempter was a personage. No, the tempter 
and the temptation are both within. For the lower 
nature is always the tempter. There is a duality 
in consciousness until the completion of Regener- 
ation, which restores the lower nature to the pris- 
tine purity of the higher nature. 

Every one must prove his Son-ship by over- 
coming like a Son, silencing the clamoring of the 
lower nature. For what the Spirit has revealed to 
you, you must demonstrate to yourself, before 
you can be enriched with Wisdom from that ex- 
perience. Overcoming is the work of this degree. 
There is no growth or unfoldment without it. With- 
out temptation there is no virtue even. 

The first active movement of the conscious mind 
235 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

is to choose or determine. The next is to put 
that decision into execution by means of the Will. 
And this action of Will implies and requires force; 
and force implies something to overcome, — oppo- 
sition, hindrance, resistance, — something to be 
mastered or achieved. Every victory, achieve- 
ment, or attainment is won at the price of effort or 
struggle. 

Either you must be a conqueror or be con- 
quered. There is no neutral ground. Your own 
growth and unfoldment require a victory. You 
are a king, and must conquer. Otherwise you 
lose you kingdom. 

There can be no moral virtue without a victory 
over temptation. There can be no moral quality 
or character without the " Wilderness" experi- 
ences. You must either win or lose in this battle 
Royal. The " appearance of evil" must be over- 
come by Good, before the Good has any quality 
of Goodness for you. The overcoming of the 
Contradictory of the Good reveals the quality of 
Goodness in the Good. 

Otherwise the Contradictory not overcome 
would appear to be the abiding Reality, the thing 



236 



THE THIRD STEP 

of virtue. Yet its quality and real character must 
afterwards be re-determined by its fruits. 

Therefore Temptation is Good — not evil. If 
properly handled, it must not be treated as reality 
or even as an evil. For if you see in it Reality, a 
foe " worthy of your steel," you will be in great 
danger of falling under it; you will be engaged in 
uncertain warfare. In its proper use it is a means 
for unfolding your powers, for proving what kind 
of stuff you are made of, of demonstrating your 
worth, your virtue, your Sonship, your Divinity. 
For without testing, without overcoming, without 
demonstration, there is no conscious power, virtue, 
or dominion. All possible things are waiting for 
the victor. " He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things." All true greatness comes through win- 
ning victories over self. 

Do not in extenuation of your failure complain 
that your temptation was too great, greater than 
others have to meet. You have nothing to do 
with another, nor he with you. You stand alone 
in every temptation ; and your loving Father 
" will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what 
ye are able to bear; but will with the temptation 
also provide a way of escape." Therefore remem- 

237 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ber this : The measure of the temptation is the 
measure of your pozver to overcome. In God's 
world all things are evenly balanced. Wherefore 
" All things work together for Good " — to those 
who see the Good in all things. You are always 
equal to the emergency, and always have free 
choice. 

Temptation is a means to a great end — that of 
bringing out your greater faculties and powers. 
With a fixed purpose you will win. You may 
" rejoice and be exceeding glad " as you see your 
opportunity to become strong by overcoming the 
present stress, — knowing that your Heavenly 
Father careth for you all the while, and has given 
you strength equal to your day; and knowing, 
moreover, that the measure of the emergency is 
the measure of your powers — then why should 
you falter? Why not rather rejoice at the pros- 
pect? Listen to James : " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he 
shall receive the crown of Life." 

Thus temptation is beneficent, opening to the 
wise man the way to the highest things. Holland 
says: 



238 



THE THIRD STEP 

" We rise by what we have put under feet, 
By what we have mastered of greed and gain, 
By the pride deposed and the passions slain, 
And the vanquished ills we hourly meet. 1 ' 

You cannot be overcome against your will. 
Your will is supreme. You are always the King 
in your kingdom. If, then, you fall under temp- 
tation, it is because you have so deliberately 
chosen. In your kingly manhood or queenly 
womanhood you wield supreme powers, omnipo- 
tent within the sphere of your activity. But once 
having yielded your will, once having discounted 
your omnipotence, you have weakened yourself 
in your kingdom. But by every success gained, 
by every victory achieved, you strengthen your- 
self in your kingdom. 

The fact is, we do not know the majesty and 
power of our Divine manhood until we have dem- 
onstrated it to ourselves by overcoming. Om- 
nipotent powers lie dormant in us, only awaiting 
our demonstration. 

We do not know Virtue until we have made 
the demonstration. For in simple innocence there 
is no virtue. To meet temptation and conquer it 
brings out your virtue, which is always waiting to 

239 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

be demonstrated. It had been slumbering within 
among the possibilities of your being, waiting 
your demonstration, before it could be yours con- 
sciously. Do not undertake to overcome by quar- 
relling with yourself, by fighting or resisting any 
department of your nature. That is the human 
way. But Jesus has shown us a more excellent 
way — the way of non-resistance — " that ye resist 
not evil." By non-resistance the Lie disappears. 

Again James says: " Count it all joy, when ye 
fall into diverse temptations." Why? Because 
" the trial of your faith worketh patience" — ■ 
worketh virtue. 

Every force in the universe is God-force. Then 
you may thank God for your passions ; they are 
Divine forces. Their highest use is found in 
their conservation. Here they give great power 
either in the direction of physical, intellectual, or 
Spiritual activities. They are the stored-up en- 
ergy, which will not desert you in emergencies. 
When we recognize God in them, there will be no 
evil to resist. God is Good in all his manifold 
manifestations. 

When you recognize God in everything, then 
everything will have a blessing for you. Every- 

240 



THE THIRD STEP 

thing is transformed to us when we change our 
thought toward it. Evil disappears with non-re- 
sistance. Evil left to itself destroys itself. 

Why ! the Good itself must be worked out 
in demonstration before it is proven Good, before 
it is our Good. In this unfoldment we are to 
grow out of the consciousness of Good and Evil 
into the Consciousness of Good, — the Evil having 
disappeared through the recognition of Good in 
everything. 

To the victorious there is no' evil. Everything 
he encounters contributes to his advancement, and 
thus proves itself Good to him. 

But he who falls under temptation has plenty 
of evil ; because he believes in the Reality and 
Power of Evil. 

While solving these problems the Master Meta- 
physician and Master Demonstrator " fasted forty 
days" in the Wilderness. The " Wilderness" of 
the mind is the " desert place " (the silence). All 
true fasting is in silence. 

By fasting, the greatest victories are won in the 
silence. Fasting from food is a means for puri- 
fying the flesh, and is usually found profitable 
in purifying the blood and lymphatics, and clear- 

241 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ing the brain, — thus giving better health, keener 
senses, brighter intellect, and keener Spiritual per- 
ceptions. 

Spiritual fastings are means for purifying the 
consciousness. Abstaining from food is the ex- 
ternal correspondent of true fasting. True fasting 
is abstaining from feeding the soul on impure, car- 
nal-mind thoughts ; while all the powers are con- 
centrated on eternal principles of truth and 
righteousness. In other words, it is persistently 
excluding from the mind the " mortal-mind " idea 
of things, and as persistently adhering to the Spirit- 
ual idea. 

Fastings of this kind continued an hour, or sev- 
eral hours, carry one into the higher altitudes, 
where the mind receives an illumination with Spirit- 
ual realization. When all the confusions of the 
mind are dissipated, the inharmonies of the body 
begin to disappear. For in the realization of pure 
Spirit there is no inharmony. Not only for the 
purifying of the consciousness is fasting necessary, 
but in the healing of the sick it will often be found 
that " this kind goeth not out save by prayer and 
fasting," as Jesus said. There must be a persist- 



242 



THE THIRD STEP 

ent fasting — abiding in the secret place, " until 
the shadows be overpast." 

Regarding the " forty days," there is a mystical 
meaning to " 40." Its factors are 4 and 10 — 
4X 10; and 10 is the number that denotes All; 
because all significant numbers (1 to 9) are con- 
tained in it. When multiplied by 4, the number 
of the square, it signifies all in completeness; be- 
cause the square is a perfect figure with 4 equal 
sides and 4 equal angles. The number " 40," 
then, denotes a completed and perfected experi- 
ence, without regard to time. Therefore in order 
to a perfect unfoldment it is necessary to have a 
full and complete " Wilderness " experience be- 
fore we are capable of the full realization of the 
Christ in Consciousness. 

To be " tempted of the devil." The " devil" 
is not an external foe. It is the Carnal nature — 
the unregenerate Carnal Self, always the enemy of 
the Spiritual Self — the " satan " you must over- 
come and cast into the " bottomless pit " of un- 
reality — nothingness. "Every man is tempted 
when he is drawn aside by his own lusts and en- 
ticed," James tells us. 

To unfold the Heavenly Man the allurements, 
243 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

temptations, and illusions of the Carnal Self must 
be overcome. This is the work in the " Wilder- 
ness." For the mind is a " Wilderness ; " because 
unknown, unproved, and undeveloped. But when 
this work is finished, the " Wilderness " disap- 
pears. This Spiritual discipline makes it " blos- 
som as the rose." 

The great host of carnal-mind thoughts, enemies 
of the Spiritual, are in the Old Testament repre- 
sented by the " Philistine host; " and "Goliath" 
is the personification of the whole. The slaying of 
Goliath by the demonstrator, " David," represents 
the vanquishing of all our evil thoughts, by dis- 
posing of the fictitious " devil " of Carnal Mind's 
creation. When this is accomplished there is no 
enemy; for " the Philistines fled." 

It was the same terrorizing, braggart Giant 
Jesus met in the Wilderness, — both Wilderness 
and Giant being within his own breast. The one 
is symbolic of the other; and both are symbolic 
of our own experiences. It is your own wilder- 
ness, your own devil, your own victory. 

In the two allegories there is a striking parallel- 
ism. The one defied "David," a type of Christ; 
the other defied Jesus, the demonstrator of the 

244 



THE THIRD STEP 

Christ. Each antagonist presented himself " forty 
days." In both cases the victory was absolute, 
and there remained no enemy. 

In our " Wilderness " mind what is this terrible 
" Philistine " Giant Idea or false belief of carnal 
mind, embodying the whole host of our evil 
thoughts as a champion? It is manifestly the idea 
of Reality in Evil. For when we have slain this 
" false accuser," when we have ruled out the idea 
of Reality from Evil, it will have no Substance, and 
must disappear, with the whole host of falsities. 

There is an eternal and indestructible Substance 
to all Reality, because it is Divine. But Evil, 
having no Substance of Reality, must vanish from 
consciousness the moment we discover that it is 
but an empty illusion of the Carnal Consciousness. 

If you would be free from the power of evil, you 
must know its unreality — its nothingness ; that it 
is simply a false claimant, — a " liar from the be- 
ginning, who stood not in the truth." Then if 
Evil has no standing in the realm of Truth 
(Reality), then it belongs in the phantasmal realm 
of falsity. It has no standing. It is wholly an 
Illusion and a snare. 

Every man has his " wilderness," which involves 
H5 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

more than what is called temptation. It covers 
the whole realm of misconceptions and illusions, 
in which lurks the "Lie" of the mortal conscious- 
ness, — the " satan that deceiveth the nations." 

By fidelity to Christ, the Principle of Reality and 
Truth, we shall be able to work our way out of this 
Wilderness of undetermined values into the clear 
light of understanding, where misconceptions and 
illusions do not obtain. 

According to Plato's allegory, all mankind are 
chained in a rocky cavern with their faces to its 
mirror-like wall and their backs to the cavern's 
mouth ; so that they never saw objects, but only 
their reflections. And they could only be freed 
from this imprisonment by their own exertions, 
arousing their will sufficiently to break their chains ; 
and then, by turning around to the light, for the first 
time behold real objects instead of their reflections. 

Plato's cave is the sense consciousness, where 
we are bound by the beliefs of the race, — forever 
mistaking illusion for Reality, shadow for sub- 
stance. We have depended on the eye, which has 
never seen Realities, because they transcend the 
plane of the senses, which therefore cannot cognize 
them. Realities belong to a plane higher than the 

246 



THE THIRD STEP 

senses, where the Spiritual faculties have full play. 
This has ever been the teaching of the Philoso- 
phers and wise men. This emancipation does not 
come without an effort. " Who would be free, him- 
self must strike the blow." Whatever you would 
acquire you must pay the price of. Things with- 
out price are worth nothing. 

Truth is never to be found at the " bargain 
counter;" "its price is above rubies," said the 
Wise man. It is a thing of eternal duration and 
priceless value ; and the full price must always be 
paid. Sometimes it costs us very bitter experiences, 
a great price. When you have found Truth, you 
have found Christ, the Saviour of the world. Only 
the Spiritual man can know the Spiritual Christ; 
and only the Spiritual man knows Truth. The 
man of five senses takes cognizance of " appear- 
ances," which he calls realities. But Realities are 
never seen with the physical eye. To understand 
the eternal verities of Being, the eternal Realities, 
we will not consult the senses ; because Realities 
transcend the sphere of the senses. Only Spiritual 
senses are capable of cognizing Spiritual things. 

The whole " Wilderness " story is a wonderful 
allegory, and never could have had a literal enact- 

247 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ment in all details. For we read : " Again the devil 
taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and 
showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the 
glory of them in a moment of time." Now, as 
there is no "exceeding high mountain" in Pales- 
tine, and as " all the kingdoms of the world " 
could not be seen from any mountain, ever so 
high, only the Spiritual sense can satisfy the 
story. The " exceeding high mountain " is a high 
altitude of thought. We must not think that only 
the depraved have temptations. There are planes 
of temptation corresponding to planes of develop- 
ment. The higher the development the higher the 
class of temptations. And so in " the exceeding 
high mountain" of Consciousness the overmaster- 
ing temptation of an insatiable ambition may seize 
the mind, and give the character its severest test. 

To carry out the purposes of an unscrupulous 
ambition men silence the voice of conscience, and 
refuse to listen to the voice of the Spirit. They 
" fall down and worship " the prince of this world, 
— the spirit of worldly power; 

Temptations all come from the carnal nature. 
But through Regeneration that whole realm of 
carnal mind is to be redeemed ultimately, until 

248 



THE THIRD STEP 

"the kingdoms of this world shall become the 
Kingdom of our Lord and his Christ." The " king- 
doms " within are to be all restored to the one 
Kingdom of the Christ. The confusions and con- 
flicts, tumults and wars raging among the discordant 
forces within shall through the regenerating power 
of Truth be brought into subjection to the Christ; 
so that in the final consummation " all shall know 
him from the least to the greatest." This will be the 
perfect at-one-ment, the ultimate end of Regenera- 
tion, which has been attained through overcoming. 

Thus your Son-ship, so clearly revealed in the 
last lesson, you have now clearly demonstrated to 
yourself by mastering and overcoming " the world, 
the flesh, and the devil." 

You have unfolded the Christ within, until you 
have the Consciousness of the Christ, where you 
are consciously one with the Father. Christ is 
now a matter of Consciousness to you. 

In the previous lesson you attained to " the 
measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ," 
and received the Spirit's witness and approval. 
Now you have demonstrated in experience all that 
the Spirit there revealed. Your Christ-hood now 
stands demonstrated to yourself. 

249 



X 



THE FOURTH STEP : — THE DEMONSTRATIONS OF 
THE ADEPT 

" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he 
hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; 

" He hath sent me to Heal the broken-hearted ; 

" To preach deliverance to the Captive ; 

' « And recovering of Sight to the Blind ; 

" To set at liberty them that are bruised ; 

" To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 

" This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." — Lu. 
4:18, 19, 21. 

Every prophecy has two fulfilments. The first 
is exoteric, the second esoteric. This prophecy 
of Isaiah was primarily fulfilled in Jesus ; and its 
secondary fulfilment is in the Consciousness. 

Accordingly "This Day" — the day or state 
of your present unfoldment — having taken the 
Three First Steps perfectly, and having demon- 
strated your Son-ship — you are to make the 
further and higher demonstration of the Spirit in 

250 



THE FOURTH STEP 

becoming the messenger of the Spirit in " preach- 
ing the Gospel to the poor," and Healing the 
Sick, — doing the " mighty works " in demonstra- 
tion of your proficiency as an Adept of the Order 
of Christ — the Brotherhood of the Sons of God. 

In the Path of the Adept, or the Christ Way, 
you have taken the Three Initiatory Steps in Re- 
generation, initiating you into the Christ-Con- 
ciousness. 

The " First Step " was the Conception and 
Birth of the CHRIST in Consciousness ; so that a 
" New Creation" in consciousness is begun. 

You have begun the creation of your " New 
Heavens and New Earth ; " which signifies that a 
New Consciousness is opening to you. The 
''Second Step" was the Youth Period, — the 
period of Growth in and through Wisdom. So 
you '• increased in Wisdom and Stature," until 
you unfolded full Christ-Manhood — " the Stature 
of Christ;" in the conscious realization of 
which you received the Spirit's enduement or 
Baptism, where your True Self was revealed to 
you, after the renunciation of the Carnal Self 
(which is repentance). 

Then the welcome plaudit, "This is My Be- 
2 5 J 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

loved Son," reverberated in Consciousness. This 
was your initiatory entrance into the Christ-Con- 
sciousness. 

The " Third Step " was the period of Testing 
and Proving. And it was here that, what the 
Spirit had revealed, you had to demonstrate to 
yourself in practical life by overcoming all things 
of the carnal nature in the realm of subconscious 
mind. 

This was both an intellectual and Spiritual 
process, where you used Reason, Will, and Spir- 
itual Insight to make the wise distinction between 
Truth and Falsity, Reality and Illusion. You 
found that temptations lose their power when 
you realize that both the tempter and the temp- 
tation are illusions of the Mortal Consciousness, 
having no real existence in the realm of true 
Being. 

But notwithstanding the wonderful experiences 
of Baptism and the Wilderness, you are not yet 
perfected. You have still higher demonstrations 
to make before you realize the full glories of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, the principles of which 
shall govern your whole life. 

The " Fourth Step " is where we take up the 
252 



THE FOURTH STEP 

subject of Preaching the Gospel of Salvation and 
Health. 

Salvation is the perfect Restoration of the whole 
Man, Soul and Body. 

We must do the " mighty works " in demonstra- 
tion of our Adept-ship, — our proficiency in Spir- 
itual Understanding. 

Regeneration does not come from an intellectual 
assent to the doctrines of Christ; but from the 
practical application of those doctrines and prin- 
ciples to heart and life, — from living the life. The 
important question is not, how much of the intel- 
lectual formulae of Truth we know, but how much 
we have appropriated and demonstrated. Thus 
the demonstration of Truth becomes a matter of 
great importance, as it is the index of our unfold- 
ment. Every statement of Truth is demonstrable ; 
else we have no guarantee of its genuineness. 
Hence we call every case of healing and every 
case of reform, through Spiritual means, a demon- 
stration ; because there is a principle demonstrated 
thereby. When you have healed a case of dyspep- 
sia, what is the principle demonstrated ? It is 
always the Principle of CHRIST in man. For ac- 
cording to this teaching you have claimed for your 

253 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

patient that, because he is a Son of God, in the 
very nature of the Divinity in him he cannot be 
sick ; that this dyspepsia is a false idea, a mere 
" belief" or illusion of the mortal consciousness, 
entirely foreign to the True Man, the Son of 
God. 

If by awakening in him the consciousness of his 
Divine perfection you overcome this false claim of 
dyspepsia, then you have demonstrated your prop- 
osition that he is Divine. Dyspepsia was a false 
"belief" of a false consciousness, — and Truth 
recognized set him free. This was the demonstra- 
tion of the principle of Truth. Jesus said, " Ye 
shall know the Truth ; and the Truth shall make 
you free." How can Truth set you free? By 
the thorough appropriation of it, until you " know 
it." You have the demonstration of Truth by 
and through knowing it. 

Before entering upon our work of preaching the 
Gospel of Righteousness and Health, we have im- 
portant preliminary work to do. The preliminary 
work our Representative performed, before enter- 
ing upon his mission, was the calling of his Twelve 
Apostles, saying to them : " Follow Me." 

It is fundamental to the understanding of the 
254 



THE FOURTH STEP 

full value to us of the significance of the life of 
Jesus the Christ to know that his life was a typi- 
cal or parabolic life — in all details a symbolic life, 
given to picture our Spiritual Course in Regenera- 
tion — the unfoldment of the Christ in Conscious- 
ness. This seems to have been what he had 
reference to, when he said : " I Am the Way." 

Since, then, the Christ is within, all experiences 
of the allegoric Christ, as manifest in Jesus, must 
have their Spiritual correspondence within, — all 
things of the Christ are to be found within, be- 
cause " the kingdom of Heaven is within you." 

We shall find the " Twelve Apostles" there. 
The Metaphysical " Twelve Apostles " of the mind 
are its Twelve Great Powers. 

Before we undertake to advance further in the 
Christ Work, preaching the Gospel of Salvation 
and Health, we must call these Twelve Great Pow- 
ers to " follow the Me" — the Christ within. Not 
until then are we following Christ with all our 
powers. 

What are the Twelve Great Powers of the Mind? 

In Matthew's order, " The Names of the Twelve 
Apostles are these : " 

I., — SIMON (one who hears) — represents a 
255 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

listening, receptive faculty; which when yielding 
its receptivity to the Christ brings the CHRIST into 
Consciousness. That most receptive faculty is 
Faith. It hears ; it knows. For " Faith is the 
Substance (foundation basis) of things hoped for." 
It being the foundation of all our hopes, Jesus sur- 
named him Peter (Rock), and said : " On this 
Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of 
Hell shall not prevail against it." Thus Faith is 
the Rock-foundation of a Christian Character — 
" the Church within thy house" (breast). Call 
Faith into this high calling — " Follow Me." 

II., — ANDREW — stands for Confidence or 
Trustfulness, as the narrative will show this to be 
characteristic of him. He is that faculty that never 
doubts, but readily believes without questioning. 
Confidence is first in order of action, while Faith 
is first in importance. Therefore Andrew " first 
finds Jesus," as he hears John say, " Behold the 
Larrub of God," and accepts him. Then he brings 
his brother Simon, who readily accepts. Now, 
Trust is very much like Faith ; yet it is not the 
same; it is a kindred faculty. And so Andrew 
and Simon are Brothers. 



256 



THE FOURTH STEP 



III., — JAMES — denotes Hope: \ These Two 

> are Brothers 

IV., — JOHN — denotes Love : * — " Sons of 
Zebedee ; " and " Zebedee " signifies, Given of Jeho- 
vah ; which affords a hint of the Divine source and 
importance of these two faculties. These Jesus 
surnamed " Boanerges " (sons of thunder), be- 
cause they were " able to bring down Fire from 
heaven." This shows that Hope and Love, work- 
ing together, have power to bring down from 
heaven the "Consuming Fire" of the Holy Ghost. 
Therefore bring these potent faculties into your 
Christian work ; say to them : " Follow Me." 

V., — PHILIP — denotes the Understanding or 
Sound Judgment; because "Philip" means a 
lover of horses; and the "horse" in mystical 
language refers to the Understanding (Sweden- 
borg). 

Call your Sound Judgment or Good Common 
Sense into your Christian work. For this is one 
of the Twelve Great Powers. 

VI., — NATHANIEL or ^ — denotes the power 

\ of Investigation, 

Bartholomew ^ whose initial step 

is Criticism. (" Can any good thing come out of 

257 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Nazareth ? ") He went, and saw — investigated — 
believed — accepted — then followed. By Investi- 
gation we find Truth ; the honest investigator ac- 
cepts it, when found ; because Truth is what he is 
searching for. Jesus " found him under the fig- 
tree ; " and the " fig-tree " refers to " natural good " 
(Swedenborg). He said of him: "Behold an 
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." Investi- 
gation is, like all faculties, an inherent " natural 
good," of Spiritual origin, worthy to be called to 
"Follow Me." 

VII., —THOMAS — denotes Reason, the initial 
step of which is Doubt. Hence Thomas is the 
Doubter — "I will not believe, except I seethe 
print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side," 
illustrates Reason's universal demand for proof. 
But when the doubt is resolved by demonstration, 
the doubter exclaims, " My Lord and my God." 
A doubter is always a man of Reason ; and Reason 
must be convinced. 

Bring your reasoning power into the service of 
the Christ. Say to it: "Follow Me." 

VIII., — MATTHEW — denotes Acquisitiveness 
— the Tax-gatherer of the mind, which makes 
every experience and observation — whether called 

258 



THE FOURTH STEP 

good or bad — pay a Tax in Wisdom (the corre- 
spondent of Silver). As the Romans made every 
man, every house, tree, horse, or other thing pay a 
tax in Silver, so must we make every experience 
and observation pay a Tax in Wisdom, the Silver of 
the Kingdom — " the true Coin of the Realm." 

"Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get 
Wisdom; and with all thy getting (accumulating) 
get Understanding." — " Follow Me." 

IX., — JAMES the son of Alphens — otherwise 
called James the Just — denotes the principle of 
Justice. And since this James was a kindred of 
Jesus, it follows that Justice is kindred to Right- 
eousness. And so Jeremiah says, " The Lord 
(Christ) our Righteousness." Then since Justice 
is kindred to Christ, exact justice will characterize 
all the acts of the Christian. — "Follow Me." 

X., — THADDEUS, -\ — denotes Courage; in- 
Lebbeus, > asmuch as both 

or Jude, ' " Thaddeus " and 

" Lebbeus " mean Courageous, or Man of Heart. 
It requires the same Courage to maintain a Chris- 
tian character as to face the serried hosts of the 
battle-field. Say to Courage, " Follow Me." 

XL, — SIMON the Canaanite (Heb. Canaa, 
259 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

zealous) — " the Zealot " — " Zelotes," denotes 
Zeal y Enthusiasm, Eloquence, — a faculty quite 
essential to success, on any plane. Therefore 
Call it into the service of Christ. 

XII., — JUDAS — denotes the Business Faculty ; 

— because Judas was the business man of the 
Company. On the Spiritual plane "Judas" 
means, praise of God, the bestower of Blessings. 
He it was who received all moneys, and it was he 
who bestowed all blessings upon the poor, — a 
praiseworthy work. When Mary broke the " ala- 
baster box of ointment" it was Judas who saw 
the un-business feature of the act, and said : " This 
ointment might have been sold for more than 
three hundred pence, and been given to the 
poor." He loved to give to the poor, as his name 
implies, — notwithstanding the parenthetical in- 
terpolation to the contrary. Doubtless Judas was 
a worthy disciple, until " satan entered into him," 

— or until temptation got the better of him. 

So if through handling money this noble faculty 
becomes perverted, so that Avarice is developed, 

— it becomes the "thief" that will "betray the 
Son of Man into the hands of sinners," — separating 
the Son of Man from the Son of God, as we shall 

260 



THE FOURTH STEP 

see in the Chapter on the " Crucifixion." This 
betrayal works consternation and discomfiture 
among the other eleven powers, — " They all for- 
sook him and fled." But the discomfiture, in- 
tensified by remorse, causes the death of Avarice, 
— Judas hangs himself. 

But this is not the loss of the Business Faculty. 
Only its perversion has perished. For Error left 
to itself (the others having fled) destroys itself. 

In the Consciousness of the Resurrection this 
faculty reappears in its purity as "Matthias" which 
means, the Gift of God. 

When you become a renewed and resurrected 
man, Avarice will have fallen out of your Con- 
sciousness and you will recognize your Business 
Faculty as " the Gift of God." For you are an 
entirely " New Man in Christ Jesus." 

These " Twelve Apostles " of the mind are each 
and every one essential to success on every plane 
of activity. When they are called to follow 
Christ, they insure success in every department of 
life. 

Among them the First Four are the Chief 
Powers. They are Faith, Confidence, Hope, and 
Love. These are the "Fishers" of the mind; be- 

261 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

cause like fishermen they have power to draw to 
you whatever you desire. They bring to pass ; 
they bring success. Their greater importance is 
seen in the fact that they were the first called. 

In all Christian work they will be required in all 
undertakings. 

Faith you must have in God, faith in yourself, 
faith in the working of the Law of the Lord. 

Confidence you must have in yourself and in 
others, Confidence in your undertakings. 

In Hope you must be strong and buoyant. For 
" Hope is like an anchor to the soul." 

" In Love be rooted and grounded." For Love 
is the strongest power in the universe. Being 
yourself centred in Love, you will radiate Love 
with its wonderful .transforming power. Trust 
expectantly to the working of the Law. This 
expectancy will set it working. Doubt will defeat 
you everywhere ; Faith will make you a conqueror 
everywhere. Without the constant use of these 
Chief powers you cannot succeed. 

For " without Faith it is impossible to pleaje 
God." 

Without Confidence you cannot have Faith. 

Without Hope you are in Despair. 
262 



THE FOURTH STEP 

Without Love you are separated from your 
work. 

Doubt will render Faith void. 

Fear will destroy Confidence. 

Discouragement will defeat Hope. . 

Disinterestedness will disintegrate the bond of 
Love. 

The more Love you put into your work, the 
greater will be your power. In the Spiritual 
world Love answers to gravitation. For it draws 
all things unto itself. It is a great conqueror. 

We have shown that disease is the out-pictur- 
ing of error. Then should not the cleansing of 
the mind of its errors tend to remove the error 
expression? Certainly, and by natural law. The 
same law which brought error into manifestation 
in the form of dis-ease may be employed to bring 
Truth into expression in the form of Health. If 
by functioning in error and sin I am reaping the 
bitter fruit of my unwise sowing, by reform and a 
persistent functioning in Truth and purity of 
thought shall I not root up the noxious weeds? 

Do not think for a moment that revelling in sin- 
ful thought is a harmless amusement as long as 
your external deportment is correct. For Thought 

263 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

is the only maker of bodily conditions, and your 
body must correctly represent you, as you are in 
mind — not as you seem. 

Now that we have disposed of the Devil, there 
is no excuse for sin, because we have no Devil to 
fall back on. We are directly responsible our- 
selves to ourselves for every thought and act. 
Neither can we be concealed from ourselves nor 
from the world. Our secret life, though artfully 
concealed, is sure to disclose our real character 
openly sooner or later. " Whatsoever ye have 
spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light ; 
and that which ye have whispered in the ear in 
closets shall be proclaimed on the housetops." 

We have arrived at a time when we must be 
ashamed to be sick. As the red nose is the sign 
the toper hangs out, so our diseases are the sign 
we constantly hang out, " proclaiming on the 
housetop " the inward character. " Ye are epistles 
known and read of all men." Therefore the wise 
practitioner of " mental science " will study to 
diagnose the case from the standpoint of mental 
causation, according to the principles of the new 
psychology. 

When the New Psychology is written and 
264 



THE FOURTH STEP 

taught in our schools, so that the rising genera- 
tion shall understand that they cannot escape 
from the effects of their thoughts, and that they 
shall be constantly on exhibition, there will be 
less incentive to a life of sin, because all will 
understand that it is to every one's self-interest to 
be virtuous and pure. We are coming nearer and 
nearer to the day when a new reform, based on 
wise instruction, shall be instituted. 

The world has been materialistic in thought; 
so have the schools. We have studied matter 
from the standpoint of matter, and we have 
studied the body from the same standpoint; with 
the result that our educated physicians have been 
treating effects instead of looking for mental 
causes. 

If hard feelings and bitterness toward my neigh- 
bor is the cause of my rheumatism, — where the 
acidity of thought has produced the acid condi- 
tions, — why not go at once to the source of the 
difficulty, and teach me how to eradicate the fault 
from my heart and life, — by putting the sweet- 
ness of Love into my life, as the universal antacid, 
instead of dosing my innocent stomach with the 
concoctions of the apothecary? Can you physic 

265 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Hate and Bitterness out of a man? If the melan- 
choly habit is the cause of my torpid liver, why 
not go at once to the mental cause and help me 
out of my mental rut, instead of dosing my inno- 
cent stomach and my already over-burdened liver 
with jalap and calomel? Wise instruction and 
reform is what I am suffering for. I need to be 
taught the art of true living ; that is all. 

The physician of the future must be the man of 
Wisdom and Virtue. Spiritual enlightenment is to 
be the medicine of the Twentieth Century. Drugs 
will have their place in the museum beside the 
fossils of a rude age. When men know God more 
fully, and live in Him consciously, and have a su- 
preme faith in Him — instead of in drugs — they 
will find him to be indeed " The Great Physician, 
who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thy 
diseases." 

In tracing diseases to their real causes in mind 
we shall find the remedy in the removal of the 
mental state, which has borne the bitter fruit. In 
the mental spring of all our experiences the " belief 
in evil" has tinctured all our thoughts and poi- 
soned the lymphatics and blood ; until " the whole 
head is sick, and the whole heart faint;" and what 

266 



THE FOURTH STEP 

marvel that the despairing cry is heard, " Is there 
no Balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?" 
Yes, Christ, the " Great Physician," is within, and 
may at all times be appealed to, — Christ, the 
Principle of Divinity, the Principle of Truth, the 
Quickening Life-essence may be found available 
in every time of need. 

Like Elisha we must throw the purifying " salt " 
of Truth into the "spring" source of experiences, 
if the waters of life are bitter. 

Truth is the healing principle — the " salt," 
which will correct the " bitter waters " of life. Then 
Truth is what we want. We want to realize the 
Truth of what we are — the Truth of our Being, 
namely, that we are even now perfect Sons of 
God. The realization of this has power to set us 
free, whatever the senses say to the contrary. To 
follow the testimony of the senses is to remain 
in bondage. Deliverance from the bondages, in 
which the error consciousness has involved us, must 
come from a source higher than the senses. 

Since the higher kingdom has full power over 
the lower, you must take your stand in the higher 
— in the Spiritual, ignoring for the time the 
senses ; and through the realization of the Spirit- 

267 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ual you may dominate and rule the physical king- 
dom which lies below it. 

The power of Spirit over matter is absolute, 
when you realize and know it, — knowing your- 
self to be a Spiritual Being with full powers. 

You will not do good work while recognizing 
the phenomenal as the real, nor by seeing your- 
self both Spiritual and material, — assuming for 
yourself Spirituality, yet recognizing yourself as 
material, in continuing to live carnally — assum- 
ing the highest, yet not living there — still cher- 
ishing the passions, resentments, and secret sins 
of the old life. It is not easy to obliterate every 
vestige of these illusions ; yet purity of heart and 
Spirituality of thought are the key to power in the 
Spirit's work. You cannot handle Divine things 
with unwashed hands. You cannot lead a double 
life and be the servant of the Spirit, a prophet of 
the Lord. Perfect work is done by being in the 
Spiritual Consciousness, which involves cutting 
off things of the lower plane. Because the Prophet 
is always the " Man of God " — God's Man, who 
has no fellowship with works of darkness ; and 
healing is preeminently the work of the man of 

God. 

268 



THE FOURTH STEP 

No one has a corner on Truth ; though occa- 
sionally the " mortal mind " reveals itself in some 
one claiming to be the only ordained channel. 
God has no favorites. You are as truly a Son of 
God as any other, having the same infinite possi- 
bilities and the same Spiritual powers ; and you 
are just as capable of making high demonstra- 
tions. To every one who lives in the conscious- 
ness of his oneness with God, the Father says : 
" Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is 
thine," — all the riches of his Grace, the fulness 
of his Love, the perfection of his Being and right- 
eousness. In order to reach the realization of all 
this, it is necessary to live in the contemplation of 
yourself as a Spiritual Being, — as such possess- 
ing all these perfections. 

This meditation will after a time bring a change 
in consciousness in the direction of the Spiritual. 
The regenerating process is going on ; and will in 
due time work a corresponding bodily change. 
Great changes in the physical realm must follow 
this mental regeneration as a natural result of the 
renewal of the mind. For the greatest essential 
to good work is a purified and regenerated soul. 

There is a legend that the Prophet of Galilee 
269 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

being asked when the kingdom of heaven would 
come, replied : " When Two shall become One ; 
when the Without shall become as the Within." 

"The Within" is the True Self — your True 
Being — the Divine Son; "the Without" is the 
False Self, the unregenerate Son of Man with his 
bodily expression. The " Two become One," 
when through regeneration the Human Self has 
become " transformed into the image of the 
heavenly; " so that the consciousness of duality 
disappears. 

There is always the appearance of duality in 
consciousness. We speak of the " Natural man " 
and the " Spiritual man" as if we were two. 

There is a consciousness of the Human and a 
semi-consciousness of the Divine always with us — 
the Divine being usually somewhat in the back- 
ground. It is our problem and demonstration to 
bring forward into the foreground of consciousness 
the Divine element, until it becomes the dominant 
element — the dominant Consciousness. 

This is Salvation — God in Consciousness. This 
is Regeneration — man becoming in Consciousness 
Divine, — the Human element being transformed 
and Redeemed. 

270 



THE FOURTH STEP 

The Kingdom of Israel was originally One 
united kingdom of " Twelve Tribes," — all faithful 
and true. But through Idolatry the kingdom 
became divided, Ten Tribes revolting, and the 
Tribe of Benjamin disappearing by absorption, — 
with the result of Two kingdoms, the " Kingdom 
ofjudah," and the " Kingdom of Israel, " — the 
former of One Tribe — Judah, still faithful and 
true ; and the latter of Ten Tribes — still claiming 
the worship of Jehovah, though having the image 
of the Egyptian Calf set up in its Temple, to sym- 
bolize the intellectual Creed, through which the 
individual worships Jehovah (the Calf is a symbol 
of Intellect). 

Under this beautiful historical allegory is repre- 
sented our experience in consciousness, in de- 
scending from the high plane of the Spiritual, 
where the number " Twelve " stands for the 
Spiritual Consciousness in its completeness — to 
the plane of the Human, where the number 
"Ten " stands for the Human Consciousness. For 
both these numbers denote All, each on its plane. 

Thus through the heart's Idolatry my kingdom 
has become divided. The whole mind ("Ten") 
seems given over to falsities (false Gods). 

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SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Yet notwithstanding this seemingly entire defec- 
tion in consciousness, there still remains a Divine 
Centre, at the very heart of man, which he will not 
violate. This is "Judah, ever faithful and true." 

Of these Two Kingdoms or Consciousnesses 
Hosea says : " Ephraim compasseth Me about 
with Lies, and the House of Israel with deceit; 
but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with 
the Holy One." Thus, while the whole Conscious- 
ness ("Ten") is in falsities, there is always in 
every man a " One "-Centre (Judah) that he 
will not violate. To violate this Divine Centre — to 
wilfully violate your Divine nature, your "Judah" 
Consciousness, were to " sin against the Holy 
Ghost." This is the sin of sins, which " hath 
never forgiveness," because it strikes so vital a 
point that its effect is not easily obliterated (" for- 
given "). It must spend its force, and work itself 
out in suffering instead, until the expiation is 
finished. 

This is your " Babylonial Captivity," whose 
7 X io years is a full and completed experience — 
without regard to time. This sin against Divinity 
in Consciousness may be the key to certain persist- 
ent incurables. 

272 



THE FOURTH STEP 

However, when the expiation is finished, there 
comes an end of the 7 X 10 of this experience; 
when all things conspire for your restoration, and 
the rebuilding of your temple. But by the elimi- 
nation of time in consciousness you may terminate 
your Babylon Captivity. 

This " Judah " Centre is the inner region, where 
the Christ may be born. Then from this Centre 
must proceed the regeneration of the whole man. 
In the One-Tribed kingdom dwells the True Ego — 
the Christ; in the Ten-Tribed kingdom are the 
forces of Carnal Mind. Each is a kingdom within 
itself, the " Outer " ever hostile to the " Inner." 

With your Judah Centre illuminated by the 
Christ, you send forth your " Twelve Apostles " to 
the " Lost Sheep of the House of Israel," that 
this outer man may be regenerated so that the 
" Two may become One." In Oneness in con- 
sciousness Duality ceases. — The Kingdom of 
Heaven is come. 

It is no longer a question whether healing is 
accomplished by the metaphysical method. Cases 
in proof may be found in almost every hamlet. 
So many chronic invalids and so-called incurables 
have been restored to health, that Judge Hanna 

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SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

once said, "We do not get our members from the 
churches; we get them from the graveyards." 
They are snatched from the grave. Nearly every 
form of disease has yielded to the metaphysical 
treatment. Fevers, tumors, cancers, rheumatism, 
paralysis, consumption, insanity, have all been 
healed in manner remarkable. But this is not 
saying that we heal every case. For the patient's 
cooperation and receptivity, and sometimes other 
factors of the case, have a part to play. 

At all events, a better way has been found for 
healing the sick than the old drug way, or the 
cruel and uncertain knife way. It is the natural 
way — the Divine Way — the Christ Way; "IAm 
the Way." 

The history of the Church abounds in healers in 
every Century, who healed by their understanding 
of the Christ Way. But we live in an age of very 
materialistic thought, unused to Spiritual reason- 
ings. 

To heal by the power of thought, it is necessary 
to have clear Spiritual perception, which sees 
beyond the phenomenal ; to have, in short, a Spir- 
itual Consciousness, which transforms all things 
into Spiritual beauty. 

274 



XI 



THE FIFTH STEP : — " GETHSEMANE " — 
SELF-RENUNCIATION 

4 ' Not as I will ; but as Thou wilt : " 

» Not My Will ; but Thy Will : " 

" If this Cup may not pass from me, Thy Will be done." 

" Thy Will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven." 

In the "Way" of Regeneration you have now 
advanced by Four Great Steps, viz. : 

1st, Spiritual Conception and Birth. 

2d, Spiritual Unfoldment in Wisdom unto 
Manhood. 

3d, Spiritual Discrimination — the "Wilder- 
ness." 

4th, Spiritual Demonstration — in Healing. 

In the First Step there sprang up in Conscious- 
ness a New Life as the beginning of a New Man- 
hood, with a New Principle governing Conduct 
and a New Conception of the meaning of Life. 

This New Principle of Manhood with its New 
275 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Conceptions is the Christ, conceived and brought 
forth within ; so that you begin to live a New Life, 
with New Motives and Aspirations. 

In the Second Step you Increased in Wisdom and 
Stature, and through Wisdom unfolded the Con- 
sciousness of your Spiritual Manhood, when you 
received the Baptism of the Spirit; in the blazing 
light of which the Inner Voice revealed to your 
enlightened Consciousness that you are God's 
well-Beloved Son. 

In the Third Step — in the mind's " Wilderness " 
of unknown, unproved, undetermined qualities and 
powers, you were called upon to demonstrate your 
Son-ship by overcoming like a Son the temptations 
of the unregenerate Self. Here also you learned 
to make a wise discrimination between Truth and 
Falsity, Reality and Unreality, Substance and 
Shadow. 

In the Fourth Step you demonstrated your un- 
derstanding of the principles of the Christ Life by 
"doing the mighty works" — healing the sick, 
casting out devils, and " opening prison doors to 
them that are bound " by the chains of habit, 
appetite, and passion. 

This Fourth Degree of your Initiation is where 
276 



THE FIFTH STEP 

all the beautiful work and labor of Love for the 
amelioration of human suffering is done. It is 
the stage of consecrated, ripe Manhood and con- 
sequent usefulness — the active stage of Practical 
Christianity. 

In this field of the practical application of the 
principles of Christ you may well desire to long 
remain : for here the world needs you, and has a 
right to demand of you what you have to give. 
For " no man liveth unto himself; " but each is a 
sustaining and dependent part of the great whole. 
If you have received the Spirit's illumination, then 
you are here to " let your light shine before men," 
and not to " hide it under a bushel." 

Nevertheless there are higher experiences for 
you, higher attainments for you to make; that 
thereby your power for blessing the world may 
be enlarged. There are higher and yet higher 
degrees of unfoldment, with continually enlarging 
spheres of usefulness for every one who lives up 
to his highest light. We must be continually 
advancing toward Infinity, demonstrating every 
step of the way. 

Your possibilities both for achievement and 
demonstration are unlimited. 

277 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

If, then, a greater unfoldment, even to the illu- 
minated Christ-Consciousness, awaits you, why 
should you falter at any experience, however 
severe? Why, indeed, when those very experi- 
ences shall be stepping-stones to those great and 
high possibilities? 

" Talent," said Goethe, " thrives in solitude ; but 
character grows in the stream of the world." 

The Neophyte's advancement is by alternate 
periods of silence and activity. In silence you 
form your high Ideals; but their demonstration 
is " in the stream of the world," in contact with 
human conditions. In silence you lay the foun- 
dations deep and broad ; but in practical demon- 
stration you " build according to the pattern shown 
in the mount." Well-observed silence is where 
the degrees are conferred ; but " in the stream of 
the world " you prove the degrees. 

The First Step in Regeneration is taken in the 
stillness of silence. This is the " secret place" of 
all conception, whether in generation or regener- 
ation. The Christ is conceived in the passive 
stillness of silence, in the receptive emptiness of 
your soul. 

The Second Step is taken " in the midst of the 
278 






THE FIFTH STEP 

Doctors" (teachers), "in the stream" of mental 
activity, in touch with other minds. 

The Third Step is taken in the silence of medi- 
tation, in the " Wilderness " of the mind, where 
you work out great and vital problems, and over- 
come like Sons of God. 

The Fourth Step is taken in the active " stream 
of the world " again, in demonstration of all you 
have learned in the mount of silent meditation. 

Every victory won in the silence must be re- 
won in the arena of life in demonstration of the 
principles involved. 

The Fifth Step we are now to take in the soli- 
tude of the soul, where single-handed and alone 
we wrestle with a persistent foe, as Jacob wrestled 
with the angel "until the break of day" — and 
prevailed, having conquered his lower Self; so 
that he is no longer " Jacob" (the supplanter), 
but " Israel " ( who rules with God) . Just so — by 
our " brook Jabbok " — in our " Gethsemane," we 
wrestle with a persistent foe in the darkness of un- 
realized good — "until the break of day." For 
after every dark night of struggle there is sure to 
come a "day-break " of hope. 

That persistent foe is Self- Will. " Not my 
279 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Will, but Thy Will," affords us the key to the 
nature of the work and victory in " Gethsemane." 

If you are solving all problems involved in all 
experiences, so that you wisely use everything 
you encounter, you will some time meet the prob- 
lem involved in the experience of the present hour 
— the question of My Will and Thy Will — 
what shall be done with My Will, when the higher 
rights of Thy Will are presented. And this prob- 
lem you must solve in the right way — by re- 
nouncing the human, carnal Self-Will, recognizing 
and affirming the supreme and sovereign rights of 
the Divine Will, — submitting and subjecting your 
Will to God's Will, that you may evolve out of 
human conditions into the freedom of the Sons of 
God. Self-renunciation is the work in Gethsemane. 

" He that exalteth Self shall be abased ; but he 
that humbleth Self shall be exalted." 

Self must be humbled that Self may be ex- 
alted. Self must be denied that SELF may be 
emancipated. The Carnal Self must be humbled 
that the Christ-SELF may be enthroned. God's 
Will must be your Will. If you make God's Will 
your law, you become subject to law, the bondage 
of law ; but if you make God's Will your Will, you 

280 



THE FIFTH STEP 

have the freedom of the Sons of God. In the 
unity of purpose and Will there is no bondage, 
but freedom and harmony. 

Then the important question is, Self-will or Thy 
Will, which? Self-will is separation and tends to 
death; but harmony of Will, — My unwise, un- 
righteous Will, submerged in the One unerring, 
Righteous Will, is harmony, health, prosperity, and 
Life. When the Divine Will has its free way in 
you so fully that it is your Will, then " God is 
working in you, to will and to do of his own good 
pleasure," to manifest himself in you. For only 
Divinity can unfold your Divinity, so that you be- 
come conscious of it. 

Are you desirous of making the highest possible 
attainment — even to God-Consciousness — which 
Jesus reached? Then your high desire or rather 
aspiration is the prophecy of that very thing 
awaiting you as a possible attainment; and the 
Master is calling to you, saying: "Follow Me;" 
follow Me in the work of Self-renunciation ; follow 
Me through Gethsemane ; — "I Am the Way/' 
The Way to Spiritual Greatness runs through 
Gethsemane, — the Way to God-Consciousness. 

Therefore you cannot afford to quail at the strug- 

281 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

gle ; though to lay down your own Self-will for the 
One Will should wring the " bloody sweat" from 
your brow, calling out all the heroism of your 
soul. 

True Greatness depends on the strength and 
righteousness of your purpose. The steadfast 
purpose to follow your high Ideal, though the 
cross be in your path, will win for you the laurels 
of greatest victories. 

The greatest factor of strong manhood is a 
righteous purpose, the practice of which you 
must cultivate studiously, alone in meditation. 

For character is your own. It is what you are. 
You are the maker of your own character. You 
may make it what you will. 

The man who ponders deeply, looks within for 
Wisdom, and decides all questions for himself, by 
the Inner Light, which is always available, is 
already great. What a contrast between the man 
who is poised in the consciousness of Divine 
Wisdom, and the man who knows no better than 
to look without for the solution of every question ! 

The man who has a righteous purpose is a con- 
queror without a battle, after his purposes have 
shaped his course. He is like the Hercules of 



THE FIFTH STEP 

old, of whom it is said, "He did not wait for a 
battle : he conquered, whether he stood or walked, 
or whatever thing he did." He was always a 
conqueror everywhere. You could see the Con- 
queror in him. 

On the contrary, he who fears or quakes at op- 
position will be defeated everywhere. The differ- 
ence between the fearless and the fearful is the 
difference between the conqueror and the con- 
quered. 

Emerson said : " If I fear, I will readily find 
terrors." There are no terrors to the fearless. 
They are conquerors always. 

Again Emerson says: " Rectitude is a perpetual 
victory." 

Therefore he who stands in the integrity of his 
manhood is consciously a victor, because he has 
reached that consciousness through winning vic- 
tories over Self. Here the conqueror is made. 

Gethsemane is the place of greatest decisions. 
In the Wilderness the work of that degree was 
accomplished in silence, where alone with God 
you wrestled and prevailed. Here also — as in 
all soul-struggles—- you are quite alone; here 
you must wrestle and prevail, like Jacob. 

283 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

No one can share with you this work or this 
struggle; nor can another share in the fruits of 
your victory. It is your " Cup," your struggle, 
your victory, your evolution. You cannot afford 
to "let this cup pass." Not to drink it were to 
miss the greatest of demonstrations for human un- 
foldment, — a demonstration which shall enable 
you to say with the Master : " All power is given 
unto me in Heaven and Earth." You may yearn 
for sympathy, and implore the aid of friends. But 
their eyes will be heavy with sleep. They cannot 
enter into your heart's struggle. It is exclusively 
your cup. 

All decisions which unfold character rest on 
you alone. 

It is always your problem, your battle, your 
Gethsemane, your victory, your Christ-unfold- 
ment. 

In order to be always victorious, it will be 
necessary to cultivate decision of character. 
Choose the course which appeals to you as the 
Right Course, and allow no one to swerve you 
from it. 

When you stand at the " parting of the ways," 
seeking to know the right way, the Inner Voice 

284 



THE FIFTH STEP 

of Wisdom — even the Great Omniscience — may 
always be depended on to point the way. You 
need not be long in doubt. 

You may have to make many self-denials before 
the old self is fully overcome. Therefore be 
heroic in purpose, that you may win in every 
conflict. 

With a fixed and unswerving purpose your suc- 
cess is assured at the start. The battle is already 
decided in your favor. Your name is success. 
This name is written in your forehead. When you 
look into the face of a man of purpose, you read 
success there. 

Therefore study to cultivate this principle ; de- 
termine to be somebody, and have all your pur- 
poses based on Rectitude; because " rectitude is 
a pepetual victory." If you desire to unfold true 
greatness through the eternities, have in this life 
high purposes based on rectitude. This quality 
is eternal and all-conquering. 

But, on the contrary, what is the chance and 
prospect of " the fearful and unbelieving"? As 
we might expect, " The fearful and unbelieving 
shall have their part in the lake that burneth with 
fire and brimstone," — only defeat, failure, and 

285 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

remorse. Will it not pay, think you, to cultivate 
courage and purpose and rectitude? 

Each one will some time find his Gethsemane, 
where he will either stand or fall, according to the 
strength and righteousness of his purpose. These 
severe passages in life are the golden opportu- 
nities for every unfolding soul. They are turning 
points, opening up new eras in life. To the 
strong hearted and courageous they mean do- 
minion, power, and unfoldment. 

This purposeful, courageous mental habit will 
tell in everything you do, — even in your healing 
work, as you encounter the almost irresistible 
claims of Carnal Mind. Victories here are the 
victories of Faith, Here you must be a conqueror, 
as well as in other departments of life, since this 
is the work to which you are called. 

Therefore, while giving treatment, take your 
stand strongly in the Spiritual, and stand bravely 
by your argument, with a strong faith founded on 
understanding, no matter what " appearances" 
may say to the contrary. For these " appear- 
ances " are the very things you are to overcome 
by your heroic faith and strong realization. 

Tell the man who calls himself helpless, as with 
286 



THE FIFTH STEP 

Spiritual understanding you see the perfect Son of 
God in him, — tell him silently or audibly, as you 
are led, — tell him with firmness and confidence, 
that he is a Son of God and cannot therefore be 
weak or helpless ; that the all-sufficient energy 
of Omnipotent Life permeates every fibre of his 
body. Hold him evenly, steadily, and in unshaken 
confidence in the sure working of the Law, 
and Truth Omnipotent shall set him free. If you 
are unshaken in purpose, unwavering in faith, you 
will soon see the reward of your persistent faith 
and loyalty to Truth, in your patient beginning to 
improve. 

This Gethsemane quality of sturdy, persistent 
faith will win. 

In every age of history there have been persons 
who healed the sick by the utterance of certain 
words. 

In the Middle Ages these miracle workers, as 
they were called, looked upon the morbid " ap- 
pearance," and said to it: " God looks you quite 
away; " and forthwith the symptoms began to 
change. 

What was it that gave these strange words their 
strange potency? Words, as such, have in them- 

287 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

selves no power. The power is in the mind 
which sends them forth, — in its high realization 
of the Truth, which the formula of words embody 
and represent to him. 

The formula, " God looks you quite away," is a 
strong denial of the reality of the " appearance." 
The appeal to God indicates that the demonstrator 
takes his stand in his highest, and speaks from 
his Divine nature, — seeing, as it were, through 
the eyes of God. For God can see only Truth or 
true conditions. True seeing dissipates the false 
appearance, and brings forward the Real in con- 
sciousness. 

You are recognizing God within, as looking 
through your eyes, as it were, and seeing as a 
God, — seeing truly, — seeing only the eternally 
True. For to see only Truth and perfection, in 
spite of the saddening appearance, is to see as God 
sees. In fact, it is God seeing. For there is only 
God to see or to be seen, speaking from the plane 
of the Absolute. In the realm of Absolute Truth 
disease does not exist. Therefore the Absolute 
cannot see deformity. Only the human sees de- 
formity ; only the sinner sees sin. Therefore when 
you recognize the Perfect One as looking through 

288 



THE FIFTH STEP 

your eyes with rectifying sight, deformity must 
disappear. Deformity cannot stand the " Con- 
suming Fire" of the Divine looking. In such a 
realization you can say, " God looks you quite 
away." For there is no deformity in God's per- 
fect Son, whom only he sees. 

Spiritual Understanding, or knowing Divinely, 
is true Sight. Hence it follows that all defects in 
vision are but indications of errors in understand- 
ing. Blurred understanding culminates in blurred 
vision. Spiritual Sight being defective, the eye- 
sight expresses the same defect. Sin dims the 
Spiritual perceptions ; and what marvel that dim- 
ness of vision is so universal? " Therefore speak 
I to them in parables : because they seeing, see 
not; and hearing, hear not, neither do they under- 
stand." . . . " But blessed are your eyes, for 
they see, and your ears, for they hear." Give 
your eyes and ears this Christ benediction, if these 
senses are not manifesting perfectly. 

"He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" 

— shall he not see through his own eyes? For 
your eyes are the Lord's eyes. 

" He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? " 

— shall he not use his own perfect instrument? 

289 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

For your ears are the Lord's ears. Your hand is 
the Lord's hand. Recognize God in all that you 
do. Your Word is the " Word of the Lord," when 
you speak from your Inmost Consciousness. When 
so spoken, it is winged with power. " So shall 
My Word be, that goeth forth out of my mouth ; 
it shall not return unto me void, but shall accom- 
plish that which I please." This is true of your 
word ; because all Truth spoken is the speaking 
of the One Voice of Truth. It is God speaking. 

Therefore speak your word of Truth in healing 
with authority, — with the authority of Truth, — 
which is the authority of God. It will go forth 
winged with power, when you realize its divineness. 
Paul, understanding fully the power and value of 
words, gave this instruction to Timothy : " Hold 
fast the form of Sound Words." Every statement 
of Truth should be expressed in concise formula, 
in order that its most dynamic power may be real- 
ized. The more logically and geometrically ex- 
act the formula, the greater its power. Put your 
thought into the most concentrated form possible. 

Yet your silent word may have the same power 
as if spoken audibly. Indeed, in some cases it 
may have greater power; because it does not en- 

290 



THE FIFTH STEP 

counter the doubt of your uninstructed and uncom- 
prehending patient. 

The place of power is the still centre of the 
mind, where all the confusions of mortal thought 
are hushed; where you, as it were, step aside, 
and let God speak. In the silence you listen. 
And when you receive the Spirit's Word, you 
may speak it with vehemence — with the author- 
ity of Truth. Isaiah said: "Their strength is to 
sit still." In silence we " wait on the Lord." 
" My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they 
that watch for the morning." " They that wait on 
the Lord shall renew their strength." 

You will often find the most potent treatment is 
to get perfectly still, having the mind perfectly 
empty of thought, " waiting on the Lord," as it 
were, in trustful expectancy. 

The value of a " form of words " is in its effect 
on yourself, rather than on your patient, as it 
holds your own thought steady to lines of Truth. 
Its mission is to straighten you out, and bring 
you out of your rut into clear Spiritual understand- 
ing. Then the work is done. For when you 
have removed the beam from your own eye, there 
is no mote in your brother's eye. When you 

291 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

have purified your own atmosphere, your patient 
stands in the atmosphere of heaven. 

At best the " form of words " is but the ladder 
by which you climbed to a higher realization, in 
which you could do the Spirit's work. When you 
have reached that altitude, you can dispense with 
the ladder. 

A noted healer tells of a patient " whose feeble- 
ness and emaciation made her heart sink at first 
sight, so that she had to handle the arguments 
sometime before the shuddering appearance could 
be put out of mind." Then came her realization 
of the patient's completeness in being, and she 
was healed. Going thence to her own room with 
her mind illuminated, " a waiting patient was in- 
stantly healed without words or arguments." Liv- 
ing on the plane of the Spiritual, you will be a 
healing presence. 

" Not my will, but Thy Will." Only when you 
have learned the secret art of self-renunciation 
will you have power with God, — will God be with 
you in power. 

When the will of self is swallowed up in the 
Will of God, — when self-consciousness gives 
place to the Divine Consciousness, — then may 

292 



THE FIFTH STEP 

God " work through you to will and to do." In 
this realization you will have so great power that 
" nothing shall be impossible to you." You will 
be so conscious of power that your word will be 
like a decree. " If thou return to the Almighty, 
thou shalt be built up . . . thou shalt decree 
a thing, and it shall be established unto thee." In 
the establishment of God's Will in you, the Law 
has its fulfilment, where " Thy Will is done on 
Earth." 

We will now offer a " form of sound words " as 
a sort of general formula which, or parts of 
which, may be used in most cases ; though the 
experienced practitioner will be guided by the 
peculiarity of each individual case, finding in every 
case its adequate formula. 

The best formula springs from a spontaneity of 
thought, in response to the patient's need. 

General Formula: From the viewpoint of 
the Spiritual speaking, 

You are a Child of God — as perfect as your 
Father. 

As a Spiritual Being, you are not under the law 
of sin and death. 

You are not under the law of Carnal Mind. 
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SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

You are not under the law of Heredity. 

You are not in bondage to the claims of the 
flesh. 

You are under the Great Divine Law of Love. 

Your Heredity is from God ; whose perfections 
you inherit. 

" You are complete in Him." 

God is your Life, your Strength, your Health. 

" In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength. m 

You are strong with the Strength of Omnipo- 
tence, 

The vigor of health is your inheritance. 

Omnipotent God-Life lives you. 

Omnipotent God-Truth sustains you. 

Omnipotent God-Love protects you. 

You are free and joyous and well. 

" Whom the Son makes free is free indeed." 

The mind is controlled by the Will, the 
Carnal Mind by Carnal Will, — this is Herod; 
the Spiritual Mind by the Divine Will, — this is 
Christ. You will not be entirely free from the 
dominion of Herod until you have gone through 
Gethsemane, where you renounce the Carnal 
Herod-Will — the will of the flesh — and learn to 
vibrate with the Divine Will. Even this perfect 

294 



THE FIFTH STEP 

freedom and immunity is not found, until after the 
Crucifixion is accomplished. 

You are now approaching the greatest of human 
experiences, which shall bring to you the highest 
Consciousness for men on earth. But it is not 
found in Gethsemane. It lies beyond. To reach 
it you must go through Gethsemane. It cannot 
be obtained by going around Gethsemane. For 
you cannot carry the will of the flesh into the 
heavenly altitudes, where the Christ is manifested 
in resurrection power. 

But you have so long loved and pampered this 
dear self with its self-will, you have so long obeyed 
its voice, have been so long wedded to it, that 
to yield it up as a sacrifice is like wringing the 
bloody sweat from your brow. 

But you have conquered Self, and have chosen 
the Divine Will as your will, that you may at- 
tain to this Spiritual eminence — the Resurrection 
Consciousness ; an experience prepared for and 
awaiting you, and to be fully realized by you, after 
the heroic work of the next lesson shall have fully 
prepared you for it. 



295 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

"The higher Alchemy!' — From "The Perfect 
Way? 

" The Will of God is the Alchemic Crucible ; 
and the Dross which is cast therein is Matter." 

" And the Dross shall become pure Gold seven 
times refined, even perfect Spirit." 

"It shall leave it nothing; but it shall be trans- 
formed into the Divine Image." 

" For it is not a New Substance ; but its Al- 
chemic polarity is changed, and it is converted." 

" But except it were Gold in its true nature it 
could not be resumed into the aspect of Gold." 

"*And except Matter were Spirit, it could not 
revert to Spirit." 

" To make Gold, the Alchemist must have 
Gold." 

" But he knows that to be Gold which others 
take to be Dross." 

" Cast thyself into the Will of God and thou 
shalt become as God." 

" For thou art God, if thy Will be the Divine 
Will." 

" This is the Great Secret. It is the Mystery of 
Redemption." 

296 



THE FIFTH STEP 

THE ETERNAL WILL. 
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
There is no thing we cannot overcome. 
Say not thy evil is inherited ; 

Or that some taint inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, 
And calls down punishment that is not merited. 

Back of thy parents and grandparents lies 
The Great Eternal Will. That, too, is thine 
Inheritance, strong, beautiful, Divine ; — 
Sure lever of success to him who tries. 

Pry up thy fault with this great lever, Will; 

However bedded in propensity ; 

However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet 

Is that vast power that comes from Truth's immensity. 

Thou art a part of that strange world, I say ; 
Its forces lie within thee, stronger far 
Than all thy mortal sins and frailties are. 
Believe thyself Divine, and watch and pray. 

There is no height thou canst not climb ; 

All triumphs may be thine in time's futurity ; 

If, whatsoe'er thy fault, thou dost not faint nor halt, 

But lean upon the staff of God's security. 

Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest. 
Know thyself part of the Supernal Source ; 
And naught can stand before thy spirit's force. — 
The soul's Divine Inheritance is best. 
297 



XII 



THE SIXTH STEP: — " CRUCIFIXION " — ELIMINA- 
TION OF THE SELF 

1 ' They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its 
passions and lusts." — Gal. 5: 24. 

"lam crucified with Christ, nevertneless I live ; yet not I ; 
Christ liveth in me." — Gal. 2: 20. 

In reading the record of the Life of Jesus the 
Christ, especially of the Crucifixion, if we would 
learn its vital lesson, it is important to bear in 
mind the distinction which must be made between 
some of the terms employed, which are not syn- 
onymous, as some suppose, but of widely different 
esoteric meaning, as the names Jesus and Christ 
and the terms Son of Man and Son of God. Jesus 
himself did not use these terms carelessly or at 
random, as though they were equivalents, but 
always wisely using the one where the other would 
have been improper. Whenever he spoke of 
himself as the "Son of Man," he referred to his 

298 



THE SIXTH STEP 

Humanity; when as the " Son of God," he re- 
ferred to his Divinity. 

" Jesus " is the name of the corporeal " Son of 
Man"; " Christ" is the name of the incorporeal 
" Son of God " ; " Jesus Christ ", the union of the 
two, stands for Humanity regenerated, — the " Son 
of Man " Christ-ed — the Divine Humanity, — the 
" Son of Man " transformed into the " Son of 
God," — which is the ultimate of Regeneration. 

Only the corporeal " Son of Man" could die — 
or did die. CHRIST, the incorporeal " Son of 
God," was not subject to death. The Christ 
could not be crucified, — could not even be 
" brought before Pilate," nor suffer indignity at 
the hands of the profane. The record does not 
say that Christ died. For Divinity could not die 
or suffer. We use terms carelessly. But what 
saith the record? 

" They delivered Jesus to be crucified." They 
could do no more. It is the universal experience, 
that Carnal Mind is ever hostile to the Christ, 
ever seeks to destroy the Christ from Conscious- 
ness. " Carnal mind is enmity against God, is 
not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can 
be" (Rom. 8:7). The Christ is " the Lamb 

299 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

slain from the foundation of the world ; " slain 
in the animus of Carnal Mind, yet never slain. 
For the Christ is forever the untouchable One. 
Only the Carnal receives the blow aimed at the 
Christ. Invariably " The reproaches of them that 
reproached Thee are fallen upon me " (Ps. 60: 9). 
In esoteric experience this is what the " Jesus " is 
saying to the " Christ ; " the blow aimed at the " Son 
of God " falls upon the " Son of Man," if we are 
seeking to manifest the "Son of God." For the 
" Son of Man " must die for the sins of the world. 
My whole world within — my consciousness — is 
a sin-world, a Sin-Consciousness. And this " Son 
of Man" must die to end that Consciousness and 
redeem that world. We must Crucify the Carnal 
Self— the Son-of-Man-Self. 

For Jesus was the Representative Man of the 
Ages, whose objective life represents Spiritual ex- 
perience — your Spiritual experience in "The 
Way " of Regeneration. He lived for us, and he 
died for us — not as our " substitute," crucified in 
our stead — but as our Archetype, our Pattern, 
our "Way." Therefore "The Way" of his ex- 
ternal experience corresponds to our "way" in 
Spiritual experience in the Path of Regeneration. 

300 



THE SIXTH STEP 

As the corporeal " Son of Man " was crucified, 
that the incorporeal*" Son of God " might through 
that death bring forth the " Son of Man " by a 
glorious Resurrection from the dead, so must we 
crucify the Carnal Mind, that the Christ may have 
a Resurrection in Consciousness, that we may 
receive the wonderful illumination of the Christ- 
Consciousness, and that the body and soul may 
find Redemption through Regeneration. 

In " The Way " of Regeneration we have now 
taken Five Steps. 

We have found that each step has been essential 
as a preparation for the next. Only perfect work 
in each degree insures successful advancement in 
the Christ-Life, — the Christ-Way. 

Having taken five steps, we stand at the portal 
of the Sixth Great Step, which is to open to us the 
full realization of the transcendent glories of the 
Resurrection Consciousness. 

This Greatest of all and final Step is " Cruci- 
fixion." 

In Gethsemane we have been especially prepared 
for what is before us. In Gethsemane we have 
made Crucifixion a possible experience. For had 
we been unwilling to take that step, — had we fal- 

301 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

tcred in Gethsemane, still clinging to the old 
Carnal Self, — then Carnal Mind would be still 
dominating us, hedging up our progress, and mak- 
ing impossible the glorious experience of the 
" First Resurrection." 

But having renounced the old Carnal Self and 
the old Carnal Will, we are free from the dominion 
of that old earthly Sinner-Self, and find our per- 
fect freedom in obedience to the Divine Will. 

Having made the Divine Will our own, we can 
now do what the Spirit shall direct, that we may 
advance into the Heavenly altitudes. 

Therefore in calm assurance and fearlessness we 
advance to the most radical work of Crucifixion, 
saying with our Representative : " Arise, let us be 
going." Going whither? Cheerfully going to 
Crucifixion. 

When we are duly prepared for any experience, 
however severe, — and knowing that all experi- 
ences are good, even though severe, — we can meet 
them joyfully, knowing that in the current of the 
Divine Will a higher unfoldment follows. " For 
our light affliction, which is but for the moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of Glory " (2 Cor. 4: 17). 

302 



THE SIXTH STEP 

We conquer by obedience. The struggle is 
over. Nothing can hinder the great demonstra- 
tion. This is the closing act in the demonstration 
of Divinity, which shall bring us into the Con- 
sciousness of our Divinity. 

For the Carnal must die, — must be eliminated 
from consciousness, in order to the realization of 
the Christ-Resurrection. 

It is all an evolution in Consciousness, — pass- 
ing an Evolutionary Boundary, — passing out of 
the Human-Consciousness into the Divine-Con- 
sciousness. This is progression according to Di- 
vine order. For we are evolving from, and leaving 
the old Animal-Human Consciousness, — and now 
a door swings open to us, and we are ushered into 
a higher Consciousness — the Divine-Human Con- 
sciousness. This is Regeneration. This is Re- 
demption. We have come by the " King's High- 
way " — the " Christ- Way." The New Testament 
name for this high Consciousness is, " The First 
Resurrection." 

Through Regeneration you have by an evolu- 
tion risen to a higher plane consciously, where you 
live more Divinely, — no longer the mere Animal- 
intellectual life, but the Life of a God. Faculties 

303 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

and powers before unrecognized you are now un- 
folding. The Spiritual Man, the " Son-of-God- 
Man," is coming into his kingdom. 

It is the " Kingdom of Heaven," where Christ 
is King. In our past experience this king seems 
to have, as it were, " journeyed to a far country," 

— because he has not been in consciousness, — as 
in the parable, and now " returns to take his 
kingdom," — to reign in Consciousness. 

Now that you have come into your kingdom, 
you will rule your body in Wisdom and righteous- 
ness. 

Having in view this perfect dominion, Paul said : 
" I keep my body under." In the kingdom of 
heaven you will be able to rule your body with all 
its faculties and powers — " keeping it under" the 
control of the Will. 

When we think of man as an intelligent being, 
we must not think that this intelligence is con- 
fined to the brain. For the entire organism, 
every microscopic cell of that organism, is intelli- 
gent. This is why your body responds to your 
active thought, so that you are able to control it 

— "keep it under" full control. Every organ is 
your servant, which it is your privilege to control. 

3°4 






THE SIXTH STEP 

The body contains all the stored-up thoughts of 
your past living. By the power of mind you have 
instructed every cell according to the plane and 
standard of your old life. Therefore if your body 
does not toe the mark of your new and higher 
standard, it is because you have not fully redeemed 
the past. These cells are still in blissful inno- 
cence carrying out your former instructions. You 
have got to re-instruct them according to the new 
light you have received. You must " go into all 
the world " of subconscious mind " and preach 
the Gospel to every Creature." 

The whole realm of subconscious mind has got 
to be re-instructed and redeemed. The reason 
there is an occasional outburst of some inhar- 
monious manifestation is because these cells are 
still carrying out your former ideas. 

Your body is both intelligent and conscious. 
So is every plant of the field ; so is everything in 
the universe. Because God is Omnipresent Life, 
Intelligence, and Consciousness. All nature vi- 
brates with conscious Life and Intelligence — each 
individual thing in its own sphere of manifestation. 

It is on account of this intelligence in every 
cell that you are able to give your body a mental 

305 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

treatment. If no intelligence were there, it could 
never respond to our thought, and you could not 
control it. 

Of course Brain is not mind. Mind is imma- 
terial, and uses both Brain and Nerve to carry out 
its mandates; and every intelligent cell is atten- 
tive to your word of authority from the supreme 
ruler. 

With a little attention and observation any one 
may become conscious of the working of this in- 
telligence in the body. 

If you will put your whole body in a state of 
quiet repose, and then suddenly utter some start- 
ling statement, such as, / am filled with Omnipo- 
tent Life, you will observe a distinct thrill through- 
out the entire body. There is a physiological 
reason for it. 

These intelligent cells are suddenly aroused by 
the new thought you have given them ; and they 
suddenly turn their attention, that they may 
receive that thought. For they are your obedient 
servants, ready to hear, and obey. 

As when a military officer says : " Attention, 
Company!" every eye is turned toward him — 



306 



THE SIXTH STEP 

so every cell in your body is ready to hear your 
word, when you speak with authority. 

If man had been always righteous in every 
thought, the body would manifest the same right- 
eousness in every cell ; and there would be noth- 
ing but health and harmony. Thus Health is 
Righteousness or right-ness. If mind had been 
always righteous in every thought, there would be 
nothing but righteousness in the great storehouse 
of subconscious mind. Health would be universal. 
When Paul said, " Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap," he had reference to sowing 
thoughts in the soil of subconscious mind, where 
there is sure to be a harvest for our reaping in 
corresponding conditions. And when Bacon said, 
" My Mind to me a kingdom is," he doubtless had 
reference to the whole subconscious mind, with its 
miltillions of intelligent, obedient cells, as the 
people of that kingdom. 

Therefore, with intelligent cells as the people of 
your kingdom, if your stomach is not performing 
its work of digestion perfectly, you may talk to it, 
as to a friend or servant, reminding it of its God- 
derived powers, and tell it to perform its function, 



307 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

— and it will obey you. This would be a mental 
treatment. Say to it: 

You are my willing and obedient servant, and 
love to do my will. 

You are filled with the power of Omnipotent 
Life. 

You stand in the Principle of unchanging Truth. 

Divine Love is the spring of all your powers. 

You are equal to your task; because God is 
your Strength : " Your sufficiency is of God." 

In loving recognition of your ability and willing- 
ness to obey, I command you to do your work. 

You are now in glad obedience performing your 
function. — Amen. 

Withdrawyour condemnation from your stomach. 
Because your condemnation and doubt are the chief 
causes of its failure ; and it cannot perform its 
function as long as you are condemning it as in- 
competent. Every one has observed the helpful 
effect of praise and confidence on a servant. It is 
no less so with these subconscious servants, who 
rejoice in your praise and assurance of power. 

Every organ is your servant, glad to" do your 
will; and you are the king required to rule in 
righteousness. There is no other way to insure 

308 



THE SIXTH STEP 

harmony in your kingdom. For the King who 
rules his subjects in love rules a happy and con- 
tented people. 

This formula for the stomach will apply to any 
organ. For each organ represents a province of 
your kingdom, which you are to hold in loyalty 
and truth, knowing your power and authority as 
king. 

We are not saying that there is anything like 
reason in the cells. Reason is not the only evi- 
dence of intelligence. Intelligence is everywhere, 
because God is everywhere. When you reason 
with your stomach, it hears — not the words, but 
the thoughts you give it. 

For in the body there is a great telephonic sys- 
tem. From the Brain, the Central Station, you 
send your thought along the nerve-wires ; and the 
numerous ganglia are the local stations, where 
your messages are received. Your passion- 
thoughts, whether of love, hate, avarice, or sensu- 
ality, are all innocently heard at these stations, and 
unsuspectingly received by the organs, which be- 
come modified accordingly. Is it any wonder an 
organ becomes debilitated, when we think how 
much of error, sin, and passion we have merciless- 

309 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

\y poured upon it? Knowing now that we have 
power by our thoughts to bless, curse, or even kill 
our bodies, we will no longer accuse our Heavenly 
Father of sending affliction and death. 

By the power of regenerated thought we are to 
redeem and regenerate our bodies, until " the 
without becomes as the within," — until " the 
kingdoms (or provinces) of this world (within) 
become the Kingdom of our Lord and his Christ." 
This means the redemption of subconscious mind. 

The mind regenerated and the body thereby re- 
deemed are the consummation of our work on 
earth. Then will we be prepared for graduation 
to a higher school, this lower one having sub- 
served its purpose. 

Returning to the thread of our subject: The 
Great Teacher was using the term " Son of Man" 
with exact propriety, when he said : 

The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. 

For if the " Son of Man " idea, or human con- 
cept of Man, is not the True Idea — then it must 
"Go" — must be ruled out of mind and conscious- 
ness; in order that the True Idea — the concep- 

310 



THE SIXTH STEP 

tion of Man as the " Son of God " —r- may prevail 
and transform the consciousness. 

Here is the whole problem of Salvation con- 
tained in the meaning of the act and process of 
Crucifixion, namely : Rejection and Crucifixion of 
the " Son of Man," and the Resurrection in Con- 
sciousness of the " Son of God." 

" For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." 
By recognizing the " Son of God " in the " Son of 
Man " — the " Son of Man " " is lifted up " to the 
estate of the " Son of God." This must all take 
place in Consciousness. This is Regeneration. 

For when the " Son of Man " becomes in con- 
sciousness the " Son of God," that moment has 
Salvation come to him, because his Consciousness 
has been changed from the Human to the Divine. 

Before you can come into the Resurrection Con- 
sciousness, " the Son of Man must be rejected 
and set at naught." That old concept must " Go," 
and in its place must be " lifted up " the True 
Concept — " the Son of God." You must even 
" Crucify the Son of Man ;" in order that the " Son 
of God " may shine forth in resurrection Glory. 
The true consciousness of Life is attained through 

3" 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

death— the death of Self— the " Son of Man." 
High ideals cannot fill the mind until it has sacri- 
ficed its low ideals. The low ideals must be cast 
out and "set at naught" (made nothing), "de- 
nied before Pilate," and crucified outside the 
Temple and City, — entirely put out of conscious- 
ness, — that you may be able to attain to the 
consciousness of the " Son of God," in a glorified 
and resurrected body, " without spot or wrinkle or 
any such thing." 

Thus the way to the Christ-Consciousness is the 
" Christ-Way." In the completely transformed 
Consciousness is perfect health. And this carried 
to its ultimate conclusion implies Eternal Life. 

To be consciously a Son of God is to be in the 
God-Consciousness ; where a transformed life ulti- 
mates in a transformed body. 

When this is realized in experience, there will 
be no further incarnations for such an individual. 
For he has reached the highest unfoldment earth 
can give. 

In the old life you built your body after the 
pattern of false ideas ; now in the Christ Life you 
are rebuilding " after the pattern shown in the 
mount," —the pattern of Christ. 

312 



THE SIXTH STEP 

Regeneration is the rebuilding process of 
thought action. Its Sixth Step you have nearly 
completed. If you have carefully appropriated, 
assimilated, and carried into practice all the prin- 
ciples of these Six Steps you are nearing the goal 
of the Resurrected Life. But the old life with its 
life-long habits and its race-long beliefs is so ex- 
ceedingly tenacious, that in seeking deliverance 
from this bondage what marvel that so extreme 
a measure as crucifixion of the Carnal Self is nec- 
essary for that emancipation. 

When we say the Christ was never crucified — 
only the fleshly " Son of Man," there ought to be 
somewhere in the symbolic record some symbolic 
incident or parabolic picture to make clear that 
fact, that we may see the perfect correspondence 
of the Outer and the Inner. 

Such an allegoric incident or picture is found in 
Mark 14: 51-2 : 

" And a certain young man followed with him, 
having a linen cloth cast about him over his naked 
body ; and they lay hold on him ; and he left the 
linen cloth and fled naked." 

As a mere historical incident (without figurative 
meaning) this has no value or significance what- 

313 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ever. But admitting the allegory it is very signifi- 
cant. Indeed, if we are to regard the whole life 
of Jesus as a wonderful allegoric history — or 
even as pure allegory — then this incident is an 
inseparable part of that symbology. It is a pic- 
ture given to show that the Christ escaped Cru- 
cifixion, arraignment, and even mockery. It 
shows the point of separation of the " Son of 
God " from the " Son of Man," — leaving the 
" Son of Man " to " tread the winepress alone ; " 
— in order that the Master's experience may per- 
fectly represent our Spiritual experience in cruci- 
fying the " Son of Man " within ourselves, that we 
may attain to the " Resurrection from the dead." 

The "linen cloth " stands for the human language 
or terminology with which the human mind 
clothes its conception of the Christ — its Creed. 
But as the Eternal Word cannot be spoken — as 
the Real Christ cannot be cumbered by human 
ideas or limited to human definitions, or repre- 
sented by human words even — so this allegoric 
" young man left the linen cloth and fled naked." 
Christ, the Divine Son, is ever " young," clean, 
" naked," as to human terms and ideas. Human 
terms and Creeds are nothing to him. They are 

3H 



THE SIXTH STEP 

purely human. Words and creeds are wholly in- 
competent to represent the Christ. When you 
reach the glorious Resurrected Life, Creeds will 
appear as the swaddling clothes of your infancy, 
now wholly worthless to you. 

The Name of God is unutterable and always 
transcends human conceptions and terms. 

The " Son of God " has disappeared from the 
scene, that the " Son of Man " may be "three days 
and three nights in the heart of the earth." 

There were " three days and three nights " from 
Thursday morning, when the arrest took place, 
and the "young man" disappeared, — marking 
the time that the " Son of Man " enters into the 
heart of human conditions ("the heart of the 
earth ") — to " Very early in the morning " (Sun- 
day), when Mary sees again the "young man," 
who has now taken again his redeemed and trans- 
formed body, leaving the tomb empty. 

In our work of crucifying the Carnal Self there 
are "Two (metaphysical) Thieves," which must 
also be crucified and eliminated from conscious- 
ness, in order to a successful demonstration. These 
" Two Thieves," which rob you of the full realiza- 
tion of your Divine Inheritance are : 

315 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

The Idea of Matter's Reality, and 
The Idea of Evil's Reality; — 

the former " on the Right Hand " (the place of 
favor) ; and the latter " on the Left Hand " (the 
place of rejection). 

As long as these " robber" Ideas are allowed a 
place in the mind, you will be robbed of the true 
conception of Realities, and of the full realization 
of yourself as a Spiritual Being; — you cannot 
have the heavenly realizations in the present tense; 
and will hope to find them in a future state of 
existence. For as long as you believe in two 
Realities — one Spiritual and the other Material, 
you will have a divided mind, and cannot fully 
know God as Spirit. 

As long as you believe yourself both Spiritual 
and Material, you will be in bondage to material 
conditions. 

You must crucify (cross out) the " robber" of 
materiality. 

Then again as long as you believe in Two Re- 
alities — one Good and the other Evil — you can- 
not fully know the Good, nor God, the Eternal 
Good. Because being in the consciousness of 

316 



THE SIXTH STEP 

Good-and-Evil, you have a divided mind. As 
long as you believe in Two Principles governing 
you — a principle of Good and a principle of 
Evil, you cannot know the freedom of the Sons 
of God, nor attain to the freedom of the Resur- 
rection. For conscious of two opposing principles 
governing you, you will be in constant warfare, — 
" a house divided against itself." You must cross 
out this " robber." 

It is worthy of note that there is a salvable 
element in the Right Hand Robber (else he would 
not be on the right hand). Therefore he is both 
crucified and saved at the same time. In our 
efforts to overcome the material consciousness, 
for the sake of strengthening the Spiritual con- 
sciousness, we shall not succeed, until we make 
the distinction between the Real and the Ap- 
parent — the Spiritual and the Phenomenal as- 
pects of matter. For the visible, phenomenal, 
apparent aspect is not the Reality. But back of 
and underlying the phenomenal is the eternally 
abiding Spiritual Essence, which is the Substance 
of Reality. Thus Matter is Real in its invisible 
Spiritual Substance ; but unreal in its phenomenal 
aspect. 

3i7 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

This Robber repented, and entered into para- 
dise with the eternally abiding Christ. — " To-day 
shalt thou be with me in paradise," — which signi- 
fies, that when we give up (repent of) sense evi- 
dence, as the test of Reality, and recognize the 
Spiritual as the Real, then our material concep- 
tions will change to Spiritual conceptions ; and 
the material body will appear as a Spiritual body, 
in consciousness, according to the degree of reali- 
zation. We have renounced the " robber" of 
materiality, and have found its Spiritual Essence, 
or true Substance. The " robber" element disap- 
pears, and salvable Substance remains. 

But in the Left Hand robber there is no salv- 
able element or redeeming principle whatever. 
For Evil is a falsity, unreality, a delusion and a 
snare, and must " Go " with the Carnal Conscious- 
ness, before the Spiritual Resurrection can be 
realized in Consciousness. 

In the realm of Reality Matter exists as Spirit- 
ual Substance ; but Evil having no Substance of 
Reality is a stupendous Lie, and can have no 
place in the Christ-Consciousness, toward which 
we are hastening. 

We have been doing some pretty thorough work 
318 



THE SIXTH STEP 

with Carnal Mind, in destroying its supports ; so 
that the old Sin-Consciousness has nothing left 
to support it. This causes a sense of vacuity 
and darkness, — " there was darkness over all the 
earth until the ninth hour." There is always 
darkness before the dawning light ; and the deeper 
the darkness, the greater the light to follow. 

"My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken 
Me," is the last despairing cry of the old expiring 
Consciousness of Sin-and-Death. 

This wail of despair shows conclusively that 
the '" Son of Man " suffered alone without the 
" Son of God's" presence. For the expression, 
" My God," means the Christ, and not the 
Father. "Jehovah," " Lord," " Lord God," and 
" My God " are terms for the Christ. 

This Great Allegoric Tragedy was enacted and 
written to show us that we must crucify the old 
Self — the Carnal-Mind-Consciousness, in order 
that the Christ in us may come forth into Con- 
sciousness by a great Resurrection from the dead 
— the Consciousness of Life from the Conscious- 
ness of Death. 

Carnal Mind must die ; — the Carnal Conscious- 



319 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

ness must go out in darkness — entirely abandoned 
by the Christ. 

"It Is Finished." 

The old Sin-Consciousness goes out in darkness. 

That Consciousness is forever ended. — It is 
dead. 

" There is no longer any Consciousness of Sin," 
said Paul. 

Without the consciousness of sin, there is no 
sin. 

What is not in consciousness Is NOT — to you. 

You have passed through the greatest of human 
experiences, and have accomplished the greatest 
work for men on earth. You have not merely 
destroyed a "false belief"; — but you have de- 
stroyed a whole False Consciousness / 

You have passed the greatest Evolutionary 
Boundary for unfolding Man. You have " died 
unto sin," — unto the Sin-Consciousness. 

It is forever ended. 

This is the "First Death;" — after which fol- 
lows the " First Resurrection." 

" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
First Resurrection. On such the Second Death 
hath no power." 

320 



XIII 

THE SEVENTH STEP : - 

SABBATH"— THE CHRIST-CONSCIOUSNESS 

" I Am the Resurrection and the Life : he that believeth 
on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." — Jno. 
ii: 25. 

In tracing out the regenerative process of Spirit- 
ual Evolution, — in the more rudimentary Mosaic 
Course we recognized in the symbolism of the 
great Allegory of the story of Creation the Law 
of the Soul's unfoldment through Divine order; 
beginning with its chaotic " earth-without-form- 
and-void state of mind," where " darkness was 
upon the face of the deep" — the darkness of 
ignorance; — then following on in orderly pro- 
gression through the alternation of " evenings " 
and " mornings " — ignorance yielding to enlight- 
enment — through the " Six Days" or Degrees 
necessary to every great Unfoldment — Six 
Periods of working experience, — the Soul 

321 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

reached the great ultimate of its struggles in 
Spiritual Realization — its " Sabbath of Rest," 
— the nightless Day of Spiritual Illumination, 
or Understanding. Here the Soul rests ; as there 
is no more work to be done. Because in Realiza- 
tion all labor ceases, all striving ends, — " And 
God rested on the Sabbath Day from all his work, 
which He had made." 

" There is no power but of God." Therefore 
in all your working it is God working, and when 
labor is finished it is God resting. You are "work- 
ing together with God" in all your evolution ; and 
God is working with you for the unfoldment into 
manifestation of himself. 

When you are in the Realization of your Ideal 
you have reached your " Sabbath." 

Realization is the Day without a Night; no 
"evening" or "morning" is mentioned; there is 
only Day. — " There shall be no Night there." 

Then in the " Six Days " or " Steps " of our 
Christ Course we have outlined the same process 
of Regeneration, as allegorically set forth in the 
unique, picturesque life of Jesus of Nazareth, the 
Representative Man of the Ages, the Archetypal 
Man, whose life mission was the burden of all the 

322 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

prophets, and whose life course was the prophecy 
of the experience of every individual evolving the 
Christ-Consciousness. His career pictures or por- 
trays our career in the way to the Regenerate 
Life. — " I Am the Way." 

Like the other symbology, this also has its " Six 
Days," Degrees or Steps to the same end, namely, 
a regenerated and illuminated mind, with its coun- 
terpart, a redeemed and regenerated body, — 
which is represented by the Resurrection of the 
body of Jesus. 

The " Sabbath " of the Mosaic record is sym- 
bolic of the Soul's rest in the completion of its 
evolution from the Adam-Consciousness to the 
Christ-Consciousness. And this also is symbolized 
by the Resurrection. Both represent the Spiritual 
Consciousness attained. 

The First Great Step in this Way of Spiritual 
unfoldment is the Immaculate Conception and 
New Birth, — the Conception of the Divine Idea 
or Living Germ-Principle in Consciousness. This 
Infant Conception is to be unfolded, until it 
becomes a Consciousness. The New Birth is the 
Initial Step for every Initiate in the Way of the 
True Christian Life, — the Higher Christianity. 

323 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

The Second Great Step is the Soul's unfold- 
ment in Wisdom, which is indicated by the mysti- 
cal expression " Twelve Years Old." 

This unfoldment continues until the fulness of 
Wisdom is attained. 

Wisdom is the Spiritual Nutrition of the Soul, 
which sustains and builds it up in strength and 
power, unfolding its manhood to the " Stature of 
Christ." It is by the appropriation and assimila- 
tion of Truth that the Soul " grows up into Christ 
its living head." Attaining which, it receives its 
baptismal enduement, and the revelation : " This 
is my Beloved Son." This is the climax and end 
of the Second Degree in Regeneration. 

The Third Great Step, is Overcoming and Dis- 
crimination. 

Here you wrestled with temptation and prevailed, 
like a Son of God. Here you solved the great 
problem of Good and Evil, and thus demonstrated 
your Son-ship. For the things which are revealed 
by the Spirit must be demonstrated by the unfold- 
ing Neophyte in the wilderness of practical life, 
before it is his own Good. 

Here all things of temptation (4 X 10) must be 
met, and all things of overcoming must be accom- 

324 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

plished. In the victorious issue of this demonstra- 
tion you " return in the power of the Spirit." 

Thus your Sonship, which was so clearly re- 
vealed by the Spirit, you have demonstrated to 
yourself by overcoming like a Son. 

The Fourth Great Step, is Demonstration — in 
words and works, — healing the sick and reforming 
the sinner in demonstration of your understanding 
and appropriation of the principles of the Kingdom 
of Heaven. 

The Fifth Great Step, is " Gethsemane " or Self- 
renunciation, — a most heart-searching experience. 
Not until we have learned this lesson and put it in 
practice can we know and conform to the Divine 
Will. 

" Not as I will, but as Thou wilt," must be the 
language of the Soul, even to utter self-renuncia- 
tion, before you can advance to Calvary, and 
attain through experience to that sublime Con- 
sciousness — the Resurrection. Many have taken 
the First Four Steps successfully ; while few have 
had the courage and strength of purpose to pass 
the severe ordeal of Gethsemane. And therefore 
many fail of the highest Spiritual attainment in 



325 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Consciousness. Yet Gethsemane is the key to the 
Resurrected Life. 

The Sixth Great Step, is Crucifixion — another 
deep experience of the heart — the one necessarily 
preceding and making possible the transcendent 
glories of the Resurrection of Christ in Conscious- 
ness. 

We must Crucify (cross out) the Carnal Self — 
the " Son of Man," before the True Self, the " Son 
of God " can be realized in Consciousness. 

In order to have the full realization of Divinity 
in Consciousness the Sixth Step must be taken, 
even to the sealing of the tomb of the Carnal Con- 
sciousness — if we would have the Christ come 
forth bursting the bars of death, triumphant over 
the " last enemy." 

Thus only by going all the Christ-Way may 
you be able to gain the CHRIST-CONSCIOUSNESS. 
There is no other Way — "I Am the Way." 

In the Crucifixion we read, that the soldiers 
divided his outer garments freely among them- 
selves ; while his Inner Garment, the " Seamless 
Robe," they gambled for, to determine " whose it 
shall be." Esoterically the garments of Christ 
are the covering or clothing of Truth — the lan- 

326 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

guage in which we clothe it; or the doctrines we 
formulate from it. 

The " outer garments " are the literal expres- 
sions of the teachings of Christ, — the "letter of 
the Word; " to which every one may freely help 
himself, choosing such parts as suit his purpose, in 
formulating his theological doctrines, to express 
his intellectual conception of the Truth of Christ, 
— Truth which is Christ. 

The " Inner Garment " or " Seamless Robe " is 
the Interior Sense or Spiritual Meaning, which is 
one and indivisible, symmetrical and unrendable. 
Therefore the Soldiers say : " Let us not rend it, 
but cast lots, whose it shall be." 

The symmetrical beauty of a statement of Truth 
always commends itself to the accurate logician ; 
though he may not see beyond the intellectual ex- 
pression of it, — which is but a symbolic formula, 
that is never quite capable of revealing the Spirit- 
ual Idea. 

The gambling for the " seamless robe of Christ " 
indicates the universal claim for its possession on 
the part of the "soldiers of the Cross," — the de- 
fenders of the faith. But as in gambling there is 
always doubt " whose it shall be," until the die is 

327 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

cast, — so in every Creed or statement of Truth 
there always exists a lingering doubt, whether 
Creed is Absolute Truth — whether this or that 
Creed. Nevertheless each is persistent in his 
claim. 

This is just what is going on between the various 
churches in the advocacy of their Creeds. Yet 
Creed is not Truth Absolute. For that cannot be 
put into any intellectual formula. It is greater 
than words. But if Creed is the perfect formula, 
— if Dogma is Truth, why this everlasting argu- 
ment to prove it? 

TRUTH does not hang on argument, nor does 
it need to be intellectually proved. It is self-evi- 
dent, and " commends itself to every man's con- 
science," — commends itself to the Inner Man, 
who always knows. 

But after all this debating (gambling), Dogma 
is not the genuine article. It is merely human 
Opinion, which therefore needs to be sustained by 
argument. It belongs to the Realm of Intellect ; 
while Truth is of the Spiritual Realm. He who 
rests in Creed dwells in the realm of illusions, 
which blind the eyes to Spiritual Truth. 

The reason men have doubts concerning Dogma 
328 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

is because the Spiritual Self, the Son of God 
within, which has been kept under by boastful In- 
tellect, and which always knows Truth, is letting 
its voice be heard through the mists of Carnal 
Mind, and would fain lead into all Truth, if only 
they would listen to its unerring Voice. 

When you have made the sublime demonstra- 
tion of the Resurrection Consciousness, through 
triumphing over the Carnal Self, with its arrogant 
Intellect, thus bringing into consciousness the 
Heavenly Man, — then Dogma will be outgrown. 
It will have served its day; but now will be as use- 
less as the empty shell of the lazy grub that once 
crawled on the bottom of the pond, — after it has 
released the gorgeous dragonfly. It had a use on 
the lower plane of the merely " Natural Man ; " 
but on the plane of the " Son of God," the plane 
of Spiritual Realization, it will have no place. He 
who is in Spiritual Realization will not care about 
Catechisms. For he dwells in the bosom of the 
Father, having the full fruition of all that Creed 
designs to teach. 

Having taken the Six Steps in Regeneration ; 
having destroyed the Sin-Consciousness ; having 
" died unto sin," — so that " there remains no 

329 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

more consciousness of sins," — you stand at the 
threshold of the Resurrection of Life, the tri- 
umphant Consciousness of Holiness. — " Enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

This is the " New Jerusalem," the Beautiful City 
of God with its streets of Gold and its Gates of 
Pearl. 

" If we have been in the likeness (figure) of his 
death, we shall be also in the likeness (figure) of 
his resurrection ; knowing this, that the old man is 
crucified with him, that the body of sin might be 
destroyed ; for he that is dead is freed from sin " 
(Rom. 6:5-7). 

This means, that the Carnal Consciousness is 
dead through Crucifixion ; because we have been 
united with him " in the likeness of his death." 
And by reason of the death of the sin-conscious- 
ness/we shall have the consciousness of his Resur- 
rection, — His Likeness. 

It is ours by right of inheritance, and becomes 
ours consciously, when we have solved our prob- 
lem, in the allegory of his death and resurrection. 
Therefore in the Consciousness of the Resurrec- 
tion " sin shall not have dominion over you ; for 



330 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

ye are not under Law, but under Grace " (Rom. 

6:14). 

He who has passed the Crucifixion stage of de- 
velopment does not sin, because he is freed from 
the consciousness of sin, and is under Grace. 
What is not in consciousness is not> to that one. 

In the Crucifixion, while the body was slain it 
was not destroyed. It was rather redeemed and 
Spiritualized through death. For while the body 
of mortality and matter went into the tomb, in the 
Resurrection the same body came forth from the 
tomb transformed into a glorious Spiritual body, 
forever freed from all that had made it mortal or 
material. So in the esoteric correspondence of 
this allegoric death, in crucifying Carnal Mind, we 
are not destroying the mind. For while the body 
was slain, it was thereby redeemed and made 
glorious. So while the mortal Soul is slain, only 
its carnality has perished — the Sinner-Conscious- 
ness, — and redemption and a transformed Con- 
sciousness is the result. 

Then with the consciousness transformed, puri- 
fied, regenerated, and illuminated, will inevitably 
result a corresponding transformation in the body, 
— making it " like His most glorious body." 

331 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Through the crucifixion of the Sinner-Seif you 
have lost the old Sinner-Consciousness ; and from 
out of that death you must arise purified and glo- 
rious in the Resurrection-Consciousness, forever 
free from the " curse of the Law." The Law was 
made for the Sin-Consciousness; therefore in the 
Resurrection-Consciousness you are above Law. 
" There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ-Jesus, who walk not after the 
flesh but after the Spirit." 

The transformation that took place in the body 
of Jesus was accomplished through the Spiritual- 
ization of his mind ; which wrought the Spiritual- 
ization of his body; until only Spiritual properties 
remained. Through the Spiritualizing process of 
Regeneration the body ceased to be longer ma- 
terial, having been transformed thereby " into the 
image of the heavenly." 

The same purifying thought power had trans- 
formed Elijah's body into a Spiritual body; so 
that he escaped death by translation. Both Jesus 
and Elijah triumphed over death by Spiritual 
evolution. Both attained to the Spiritual Con- 
sciousness, which wrought the redemption of their 
bodies, — the one being resurrected and the other 

332 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

translated, — Elijah being a type for one age, 
Jesus for another. 

If a material consciousness has given our bodies 
their material appearance and properties, then a 
transformed consciousness must culminate in a 
transformed body by natural law. This is the 
secret and mystery of Redemption. The mystery 
disappears, when the secret is found. When we 
understand all mysteries, we shall be at one with 
Omniscience and have all Wisdom. 

John said, " The Son of God was manifested, 
that he might destroy the works of the devil." 
Wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever the " Son 
of God is manifested " in consciousness, — the 
devil-consciousness must disappear ; — the devil in 
consciousness must be destroyed by the Christ 
in consciousness. Thus the Christ destroys the 
works of the devil from consciousness. 

Death, the greatest work of the devil, had to be 
destroyed, — its King, personified Evil, had to be 
met and vanquished on his own ground — in his 
own stronghold, the Tomb. This herculean task 
Jesus undertook and triumphantly accomplished. 
" He descended into Hell (the tomb), that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of 

333 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

death, and deliver them who through fear of death 
were all their lifetime subject to bondage " (Heb. 
2:14-15). 

Thus a transformed mind carries with it its cor- 
responding expression, a transformed body. This 
is the body of health — even, in its ultimate, per- 
petual youth. 

Because we have put especial emphasis on the 
Spiritual, we have not decried or underrated the 
body. On the other hand, it is Divinely perfect 
in form and function, its perfect health being essen- 
tial to highest Spiritual development. Only in the 
old thought had we underrated it. Calling it earthy, 
it was earthy, and tended to earth. " Dust to 
dust " was its law. But in the higher understand- 
ing we have learned that all things are Spiritual 
in origin and essence ; and that the body is a 
Spiritual temple, holy and Divine. 

Therefore in the ultimate of Regeneration we 
may look for the demonstration of its Spirituality, 
in its conformity to the Divine pattern of perfec- 
tion. 

Speaking of Spiritual perception as a faculty of 
the Spiritual Man, we are not considering the 
Spiritual Man as a being without a body. For 

334 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

Man is never without a body. He is a three-fold 
being, at once Body, Soul, and Spirit. Spiritual 
perception is a faculty of Man — three-fold Man, — 
that faculty by which he may cognize God, and 
know God within himself. This is his highest 
faculty. Even Spiritual perception has relation to 
body and brain ; which is true of all Spiritual fac- 
ulties. 

For on the under side of the brain, at the junc- 
tion of its hemispheres, just at the junction of the 
branches of the optic nerves, and in the field of 
all the perceptives — indicating a relation to per- 
ception — is located a small round process or uvula- 
shaped protuberance, called the " pineal gland " or 
conarium ; — an organ, whose function has to 
Occidental physiologists always been a mystery ; 
but to which Oriental physiologists and philoso- 
phers ascribe the function of Spiritual perception. 
They have observed, that in persons of large 
Spirituality it is large and full ; while in those defi- 
cient in Spirituality it is shrunken or nearly obliter- 
ated. Des Cartes called it, the " seat of the scul ;" 
the Brahmans call it, " The Eye of Siva, " or the 
Spiritual eye. This is its most probable function. 

This being a projection from the brain, it indi- 
335 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

cates that in Spiritual perception we make use of 
the brain ; for whether we perform our functions 
on the animal or Spiritual planes, we use the brain, 
in either case. 

The conarium, then, is the physical organ of 
Spiritual Sight — the Eye of the Soul, the "All- 
seeing Eye " of Masonry, or the " single eye " of 
Jesus, which " fills the whole body full of light." 
Spiritual illumination must come through this or- 
gan, which always looks within, beholding the 
Spiritual world, which also is within. Every man 
who walks the earth has not only external percep- 
tives, but internal as well; which serve him ac- 
cording to his use of them. External perceptives 
behold external phenomena; Internal perceptives 
behold Spiritual things. They who recognize only 
the physical man use only external perceptives, 
and generally disbelieve in Spiritual things ; while 
the man of large Spirituality lives in the Spiritual, 
sees the Spiritual everywhere, sees God in every- 
thing. The one looks upon phenomena, and calls 
them Realities ; the other sees the Spiritual in the 
phenomenal. For only the Spiritual is Real. 

The one sees things temporal ; the other things 
eternal. The one is agnostic ; the other gnostic. 

336 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

Trusting only to the outward-looking eye, man 
sees a world apart from himself, which he there- 
fore seeks to possess. Trusting to the inward- 
looking eye — the ''single Eye" — he beholds a 
world within, already his ; — he cannot seek to 
possess what he has in realization. 

The Spiritualization of mind and body is ac- 
complished by the constant use of the Spiritual 
faculties of the Soul. The " Children of the Res- 
urrection " are proficient in the use of these 
higher faculties. 

Evolution is the order of life. At first our con- 
ceptions are very material, and we use chiefly the 
external senses. At length, as we begin the higher 
unfoldment, the finer and more interior faculties 
begin to come into use, becoming the more keenly 
active the more they are used. " Howbeit that is 
not first which is Spiritual, but that which is natu- 
ral." 

The Christ-Way has brought us up from the 
Natural to the Spiritual, — out of the darkness of 
Egypt into the " Promised Land." 

We have come by the "King's Highway" — 
" the Way that is cast up for the Ransomed of the 
Lord: the unclean shall not pass over it; but the 

337 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION. 

Redeemed shall walk there ; and the Ransomed of 
the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads" (Is. 35: 
8-1 1). 

The time is near at hand when death will not be 
necessary as the closing act in the drama of life. 
Because man will have solved the problem of Life, 
and have attained Immortality in Consciousness. 

When there is no death in Consciousness, there 
will be none in experience. Therefore there must 
be a crucifixion and destruction of death from 
consciousness. For just what the Crucifixion and 
death of the " Son of Man " is designed to teach 
is, that there must be an utter destruction and 
elimination from Consciousness of Evil — Devil 
— Carnal Mind — Sin and Death. Then with this 
sweeping purification of Consciousness there will 
follow the Resurrection of the CHRIST in Con- 
sciousness. 

To realize the Christ in Consciousness is to 
realize Immortality. 

" I Am the RESURRECTION and the LIFE." — 
" Christ hath abolished Death." 

In the realization of Christ you are realizing 
Life, — not Death. Christ and Death are antithet- 

338 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

ical: they are incompatibles, and cannot co-exist 
in Consciousness. When the Christ is fully in 
Consciousness, Death is lost. What you have in 
Consciousness, you have indeed ; what is not in 
Consciousness IS NOT — to you. 

There is no Salvation except in Consciousness; 
neither any Resurrection except in Consciousness. 
Therefore the Consciousness of being Risen with 
Christ is the Great Salvation. 

Through Regeneration you are accomplishing a 
Great Evolution, — passing a great Evolutionary 
Boundary — out of the Consciousness of Sin-and- 
Death, into the Consciousness of Life and Immor- 
tality, Holiness and Health perennial. This great 
change in Consciousness is called, " The First 
Resurrection; " — a change impossible without a 
Death — " the First Death ; " — that you may have 
a Resurrection from the Dead. This is the " vic- 
tory over Death." 

" I Am the Resurrection and the Life." 

" I Am " is the name of the Christ — the Great- 
est Name — the Name, " before which every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue confess." 

But in order correctly to utter this " Unutterable 
339 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Name," you must know the Christ within. In other 
words, if you would know the meaning and power 
of " I Am," you must stand in the Christ-Con- 
sciousness. But the " Children of the Resurrec- 
tion" know and understand. 

No doubt few attain to this Consciousness of 
Highest Things. Nevertheless it is attainable ; 
because He who has become our Pattern has trav- 
elled this way himself, thereby demonstrating its 
possibility of attainment. 

The Church visible is not in this wonderful Con- 
sciousness. It is an experience for the individual, 
who is willing to " lose his life, that he may find 
it." These few are ^the " Children of the Resur- 
rection " — the " Church Triumphant," — whether 
they are in the visible Church or not. They find 
the Church within their own breasts, and walk the 
streets of the New Jerusalem, conscious of their 
Christ-Righteousness. "These are they, who have 
come up out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." They have destroyed the Sin-and- 
death-Consciousness (died unto sin) — have passed 
through the " First Death ; " so that Death is elim- 
inated from consciousness, and therefore cannot 

340 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

come into experience. To these there can be no 
"second death," since they are in the conscious- 
ness of Life. 

The Heavenly Man — the Christ-Self — is on 
his throne — in Consciousness. 

You are conscious of the Christ living and 
reigning in you. 

A few Spiritually illuminated Theologians are 
perceiving that it is the spirit and genius of the 
New Testament to reveal to men, that death is not 
a necessity ; but rather that Immortality belongs to 
man by an inherent law of his Being, and is attain- 
able through the law of unfoldment, as set forth and 
demonstrated by the meek and lowly Nazarene. 

Rev. A. C. Dickinson, D.D., says: "When the 
whole race is born of the Spirit and lives in the 
Spirit, it is quite possible that their translation 
into the resurrection state will be as far from what 
we call dissolution and corruption, as was that of 
Enoch and Elijah." 

Then it follows, that what is possible for the 
whole race under a favoring environment is pos- 
sible for the individual who is able to demonstrate 
over an adverse environment, as is shown by the 
examples of Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. 

34i 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Again the Doctor says : " If a man would live, 
and live forever, he must know Christ and the 
power of his resurrection. The Spirit, which con- 
trols the life cells of his being, which keeps him 
alive from day to day, by building up and renew- 
ing his physical body, and which is at the same 
time working on the invisible Spiritual body, must 
be in vital touch with the spirit of Christ, ' whom/ 
in this sense, ' to know aright is Life Eternal,' 
. the renewed life batteries shall send 
their pulsations through every channel of your 
being; the old man shall be put off, and the new 
man shall be put on ; your face shall change ; it 
shall lose its look of worry and care, and make 
smiles of its wrinkles." 

After the Resurrection Jesus was invisible to 
mortals, except as occasionally some of his Spirit- 
ually unfolded followers got glimpses of him, and 
held converse with him on those favoring occa- 
sions. 

In human experience all these things have their 
correspondential application or fulfilment. And 
thus under this symbology the world, even the 
Church, sees not the Spiritual life of the man who 
has attained the Christ-Consciousness. He walks 

342 



THE SEVENTH STEP 

the earth and appears like other men. The inner 
life of the God-Consciousness is never seen. Only 
occasionally the most Spiritually developed get 
glimpses of Christ in his life. Yet while he walks 
the earth, a man among men, he lives among the 
stars ; he breathes the ether of heaven ; his food is 
the ambrosia of the gods; the very " Ichor of the 
gods " circulates in his veins; he walks with God. 
And the possible ultimate experience must event- 
ually be like that of Enoch, who " walked with 
God, and was not, for God had translated him." 

As the Ascension of the Resurrected Body of 
Jesus took place at the end of " forty days" after 
the Resurrection, so we must have a full and per- 
fected experience (4X10) in the Resurrected 
Consciousness, while in the body, before we can 
be translated to the invisible altitudes, where in 
the fruition of Divinity in Consciousness all that 
was earthly will have forever passed away. What 
further possibilities of unfolding greatness await 
the translated soul, only the Eternities can reveal. 
" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First 
Resurrection. On such, the Second Death shall 
have no power; but they shall live and reign with 
Christ a thousand years." 

343 



Conclusion 

Christendom has scarcely awakened to the 
deeper meaning of Christianity, and the vast pos- 
sibilities of unfoldment and realization, which are 
the privilege of any one who will studiously apply 
himself to the unfoldment of the Christ within. 

We have scarcely touched the hem of the gar- 
ment of the Living Christ; and consequently have 
not perceived or even conceived the glories ready 
to be revealed through the fuller realization of the 
Living Christ in Consciousness. 

Our difficulty has been that we have had a far- 
away God and a far-away Christ which has made 
these high realizations impossible in the present 
tense. Consequently we have referred them to a 
future state of existence, where we have hoped to 
realize them. 

This, when we carefully examine it, is a sort of 
indefinite postponement. Like Moses we have 
" seen them afar off; " and so they have always 
been " afar off" from realization. We have had a 

344 



CONCLUSION 

far-away heaven because we had forgotten the 
plain words of the Master. " Lo ! the Kingdom 
of Heaven is within you." The " delectable moun- 
tains " are always in the far distance. They are a 
far-away Ideal, which we have a right to have in 
realization. We must learn to realize our Ideal; 
and thus take possession of our own Divine In- 
heritance, — which is already ours, only awaiting 
our acceptance and demonstration, to become ours 
in Consciousness. 

A wonderful transformation is coming to men 
when they stop singing " In the Sweet By and 
By," and believe in the Now-ness of the Kingdom 
of Heaven, and the Now-ness of the glories of the 
Celestial City, the Now-ness of the " New Jerusa- 
lem," with all its picturesque beauty. For only 
by the realization of Divinity within — Christ 
within — the Kingdom of Heaven within, can we 
have the full revelation in this life of the transcen- 
dent glories soon to be revealed — ready to be 
revealed to him who is ready for the revelation. 

The First Resurrection is not a thing for a future 
world or a future state. It is rather something to 
be experienced in this life and state of existence, 
— something for the individual, who lives the 

345 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Christ Life, — something for you — not somebody 
else. " There are more things in heaven and earth, 
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 
There are deeper and more glorious experiences 
awaiting us in this life than are dreamed of or even 
conceived by man. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man 
the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him," — right where you are — in this life. 
Why should we put it off, and so make the dem- 
onstration impossible? Why should we say, " In 
the great beyond" — " somewhere, sometime," 
and so put the highest unfoldment in conscious- 
ness beyond the possibility of realization, and thus 
defraud ourselves of the wonderful things already 
" prepared " for us, for realization, just as soon as 
we are prepared for them? 

We have relegated holiness to a far distant, un- 
known life and state, — thus making it impossible 
by such an indefinite postponement, excusing our- 
selves from becoming consciously what we are 
eternally and potentially. 

We have forgotten that " Now is the accepted 
time, and behold ! Now is the day of Salvation." 
Strictly speaking, all that we can ask for is in the 

346 



CONCLUSION 

Now. Holiness is always Now — not a something 
to be made " or established." " Men go about to 
establish their own Righteousness, and have not 
submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of 
God," said Paul. We have not recognized " the 
Righteousness that is by Faith " — not that will be 
— but that IS. 

The way to have Righteousness in Conscious- 
ness is through the recognition of it as already ex- 
istent and eternally made and " established." Men 
and institutions are forever trying to make some- 
thing they call righteousness, as though an eternal 
principle could be made. What they make is only 
an imitation, a counterfeit — not the genuine arti- 
cle. For the genuine article is an Eternal and un- 
changing Principle, eternally " established." The 
everlasting Principle of Truth cannot be made. 
It is all about and within us, ever awaiting our 
recognition. Eternal Righteousness and unchange- 
able Holiness is the Omnipresent Christ, the Prin- 
ciple of Truth, which is forever " established," and 
shall forever remain. 

Therefore if we would have Righteousness in 
Consciousness, we must recognize "the Righteous- 
ness that Is," — the Christ within — the Divine 

347 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Self- — the Son of God. For if we would know 
God, we must recognize God ; if we would be 
conscious of Holiness, we must recognize Holiness 
within — -the Holiness of the Christ, which eter- 
nally is. 

The key to holiness is Holiness ; the key to 
Divinity is Divinity. You are never to say, " Lo ! 
here ! " or " Lo ! there ! " All is within. 

All that you desire to be, the highest to which 
you aspire, already is, and lies waiting for your 
recognition, before it can be manifest to conscious- 
ness — before it can be your own conscious Good. 
When Christ is fully manifest to Consciousness, 
then you have attained to the Consciousness of the 
Christ, — the Christ-Consciousness. 

The Uluminati are they who realize what they 
are. 

The Resurrection-Consciousness is attained 
through the realization of God. For by the rec- 
ognition and realization of God we become God to 
a degree, — we become conscious of God — God- 
Conscious. 

What we love most we become to a degree. 
Through loving God we become God to the degree 
of our Love and realization. 

348 



CONCLUSION 

" Whate'er thou lovest most, 
That to become thou must — 
God, if thou lovest God — 
Dust, if thou lovest Dust." 

Therefore by persistently recognizing the Christ 
within — the great Fountain of Love and Wisdom 
— - we gradually unfold the Consciousness of Love 
and Wisdom — the Consciousness of God. 

In the very near future man is to have a fuller 
realization of Divinity in Consciousness. He must 
become God-Conscious. 

This will be our Resurrection. 

Do men ever have such experiences? Do men 
have anything like the Resurrection-Conscious- 
ness? 

Listen to the statement of one, whose Resur- 
rected life was a continual demonstration of Di- 
vinity. 

The late George Muller was once asked what 
was the secret of his wonderful service and phe- 
nomenal successes, and he replied : 

" There was a day when I utterly died — utterly 
died (and as he spoke these words, he bent for- 
ward lower and lower until his head almost touched 
the floor) — died to George Muller, his opinions, 

349 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

preferences, tastes, and will ; died to the world, its 
approval and censure ; died to the blame or ap- 
proval of brothers and friends ; — and since then I 
have studied only to show myself approved of 
God." 



35o 



MAR 6 1903 






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Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 439 268 A 



